


Public Transportation

by Bunchofucks



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2019-12-30 01:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 38,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18305489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bunchofucks/pseuds/Bunchofucks
Summary: Roxas never thought he would meet anyone he deemed likable on a bus.  Let alone a charming but also super annoying redheaded bozo.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all and welcome to my baby. What you’ll be reading is its third and last re-write. I started in high school and posted it on a different account which I’ve long lost the login info for. Anyway, I never finished it and honestly, it was really bad. I mean, we’ve all be there, right? I’m happy to have finished this little confection and send it out into the world. 
> 
> Note: I've just revamped the chapters and done just a little more editing, so if you happen to notice some differences, that's why. I'm happy with it! So, hope you enjoy :)

“Guess how many fucks I give about your menopause!  _Just guess!”_

The two ladies looked at the boy with horrified expressions, shock and terror beating their voices into submission.

“That’s right!  No fucks.  None at all.  Kindly stop talking about it,” he said, turning and collapsing back into his seat.  He sighed deeply.

Roxas Clavella was not wont to yell at perfectly strange women on the bus, but today was a special kind of day.  Firstly, it was a Monday.  Secondly, the women behind him were talking about things far too private for public transit and that sent him catapulting over his sanity quota for the _week._   He wondered absently if he should apologize, but then thought better of it.  He had too much pride to apologize for something for which he felt no remorse.  Thirdly, over his less-than-spectacular weekend, his sweet, darling, idiot brother had totaled their car.  Sora always called it "their car" but it was Roxas's.  Roxas had been working for the past three years at Cid's Canteen to be able to afford it and  _sometimes_ he let his precious, adorable, pea-brained little brother drive it.  This had proven to be a lapse in judgement on Roxas's part because Sora wrapped it around a tree on Saturday.  Sora babbled about seeing a dog or something that had apparently enraptured him and made him forget he was operating heavy machinery.

In any case, Roxas was now exiled to the city bus. 

Sora, Roxas's cherubic, lovely, fart-faced brother, had the luxury of not having a part-time job.  Their father, Cloud (Mr. Clavella to you, peasant), who was vaguely loving and also vaguely ambivalent to his sons, found it to be a wise decision to eliminate anything that could possibly distract Sora from his schoolwork, which included a part-time job.  A scholar, Sora was not. 

Roxas, on the other hand, was gifted in his studies and didn't have to work particularly hard to excel.  I’ve heard tell that people like that exist.  This meant he could shuffle onto the conveyor belt to hell that is lifelong employment at the ripe old age of fifteen.  Cid owed Cloud a favor, they were old army buddies and Cloud caught a grenade or reattached Cid’s arm for him or something.  Every time the subject was broached, Roxas got so bored that he couldn’t possibly keep listening.  So, Roxas was begrudgingly employed and began his journey bussing tables at the Canteen.  He worked his way up to cashier and now that he was eighteen, he was working the bar.  Cid's was a fairly popular spot, they held events weekly and the restaurant was doing well.  Unfortunately for Roxas, that meant late nights working the bar and having, if he was lucky, five hours of sleep until school the next day.  Cid was gracious enough to allow Roxas to end his shift at 11:30 in order to catch the last bus home.  On the bright side, now that his car was gone, he’d be getting off work earlier and could maybe start to have a life or something.  Our boy having a life was a stretch, but anything could happen.

Roxas was snapped out of his reverie when the bus jolted to a halt.  Only four more stops until he was home and, god, did he need a shower and his warm, soft bed.  He smelled like he'd run a marathon and then dipped his clothes in the deep fryer.  Roxas mentally begged whoever was getting on to sit anywhere but next to him.  He hoped at least if his resting bitch face didn't warn people away, his stench certainly would.

Two men climbed onto the bus, carrying what looked suspiciously like milkshakes, and plopped into the front-most seats.  They were laughing jovially- the men, not the suspected milkshakes.  If these guys started up on the menopause talk, they would die.  Roxas assured himself that prison would be worth it.

"That guy was SO PISSED!" the one that spoke had spiked up blonde hair and a light, friendly voice.  Roxas didn't like him.  How dare he have a nice demeanor!  On a day like today!

The other man let out a low chuckle.  A shock of red flickered over the seat with the movement.  The man was slouched low and Roxas- without craning his head and deigning to care- couldn’t see anything about him.  "After the guacamole incident, I'm surprised they still let us play there."

Blonde guy drew back. "Okay, you  _know_ that wasn't my fault!  Who just leaves a mortar and pestle just lying around like that?!  It's basically a weapon!"

"Only for you, Dem," the other answered.  "Now pipe down, I'm exhausted.  We've got a final tomorrow."

Blonde guy shrugged.  "Okay, ya grump."

The next four stops passed without incident and Roxas was grateful for it.  He was damn tired.  As the bus started to crawl, Roxas stood and grabbed his bag.  The women behind him cowered and he narrowed his eyes at them.  He contemplated giving them the stink eye, but reconsidered; his mythical and deadly evil eye would have definitely been overkill.  

Roxas plodded to the front of the bus.  He was in the middle of adjusting his bag on his shoulder when the bus lurched to a hard stop, sending Roxas barreling forward and then tumbling back onto the grimy bus floor.  He raised his head to glare daggers at the bus driver but instead saw a hand in front of his face.  When he looked up further to see what was attached to the hand (could have been anything), he saw what that shock of red was.  It was this guy's hair.  He had it pulled back in a low ponytail, but seemingly it was trying desperately to get free because it spiked out wildly in every direction.  

Roxas took the hand cautiously and was pulled to his feet.  The guy considered him for a second and then raised an eyebrow.  A short eyebrow.  Who has short eyebrows?  Just this guy, probably.

Our boy kept his head down, muttered a quick and barely audible ‘thanks’, and rushed off the bus.  Drizzling rain hit him as he started off into the night.  The walk home was quick, less than ten minutes.  As he quietly entered his father's house and closed the door behind him, he sighed and tried to shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.  Plastered in the center of his mind was the memory of the guy's eyes.  They were the most vivid green eyes he'd ever seen; bright, shining emerald windows to the soul.  If Roxas didn't think it was the gayest thing to think ever, he'd think they were dazzling, too.

*          *          *          *          *

"So, wait," said Sora through a mouthful of cereal.  He swallowed and continued.  "The bus driver said  _what_ to you?"

Roxas rubbed his temples tiredly.  "It was more about the intent than what he actually said."

"What you’re really telling me is that he didn't say anything."  Sora shoveled another spoonful of Cinnamon Toast Crunch into his gaping maw.

"No, he didn’t," Roxas answered primly.  "But he obviously made me fall and look like a klutzy dumbass on purpose."

Sora dropped his spoon and looked very seriously at Roxas.  "I've always known bus drivers to be a vengeful breed.  I completely believe you."

"You better," Roxas grumbled. "You're the reason I have to take the damn bus in the first place."

Sora gave his brother a sheepish smile.  "Someday I might even make it up to you."

Roxas regarded Sora with a pungent air of disdain.  "Doubtful."  He took a bite of toast and sat in a pool of his own hopelessness.  "You said you saw a dog or something, and then a tree grew in the middle of the road?"

Sora slapped a hand on the table.  "Okay, for the last time, here's what happened," he began.  "I was driving and it was 2pm on a Sunday so obviously I had peanut butter all over my fingers.  I had an itch on my leg and went down to scratch it and couldn't figure out how to scratch with peanut butter fingers and when I looked back to the road there was a dog RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, so I had to swerve to avoid it, and there were trees everywhere so, of course, I hit a tree.  Would you rather I killed a dog?"

"I would rather you never been born," grumbled Roxas.

Sora brandished his spoon at his brother threateningly.  "I will use this."

"Now, now, children," their father entered the room and began fixing himself breakfast.  Extraordinarily, he managed to both acknowledge their presence and also somehow ignore them almost completely.  Our boys’ father, Cloud, was a man of unimpressive height, but ridiculously impressive hair, both traits he graciously bestowed upon his sons.  As well as looking similar -you know, in the cute, demure, but will also kick your ass sort of way- they also inherited his emotional stunted-ness and his inability to express feelings in normal, healthy ways.  Thus, he and his sons showed care and love by way of trading apathetic remarks and mildly offensive digs, as you'll gather, I'm sure.  "If you're going to kill each other, do it outside.  I just cleaned."

Roxas stood and cleaned off his plate.  "We've got to go anyway."  He shot a withering look at Sora, who was chugging his cereal milk.  "You know, to  _catch the bus._ "

Sora just shrugged and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.  "Bye, Daddy Downpour!"  His father grunted at him and the brunette grabbed his backpack and the two brothers headed out.

Once safely on the bus, Sora pulled out his phone and starting clickity-clacking away.  Roxas was quietly reading.  For school or pleasure, you ask?  I mean, I think it’s weird that you care so much but okay.  (For pleasure.)  But, alas, Roxas couldn’t concentrate with Sora beside him grinning and clacking.  He closed his book and turned to Sora.  “What could you possibly be talking about that is _that_ amusing?”

Sora, still typing on his phone, said, “Riku’s telling me about his band practice.  Apparently they almost got into a fight with someone last night.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot he was in a band,” said Roxas.  “What’s he play again?  Pretend I care.”

Sora snorted and put his phone down.  “He plays guitar.  He said they’re actually getting pretty good, they started playing a couple clubs and stuff in town.”

“Stop beaming like you’re so proud of him.  It’s disgraceful,” Roxas glowered.

Sora rolled his eyes, but didn’t stop smiling.  “You can’t stop me.”

Roxas let out an intense and exaggerated gag.  “When are you guys going to finally grow up and get together?”

Sora groaned and sank into his seat on the bus.  “Maybe never!  I keep telling you, he does not like me like that.”

“Dude, you’re just blind.  He’s loved you since the first grade,” said Roxas.

Sora’s voice flew up an octave. “If that’s true then why haven’t we been together since first grade?!”  He buried his face in his hands, sighing exasperatedly.

“Because you’re both idiots,” Roxas said blandly.  His brother was hyperventilating next to him, and Roxas found it to be a convenient time to go back to his book.

Moments passed and Roxas realized Sora was staring intently at him.  Roxas chanced a slow sidelong glance at him, which Sora took as encouragement to speak more.  A brave, but foolish choice.

“Roxxxx,” Sora whined.

Roxas inched a little away from him and grimaced at him in response.

“Help,” Sora whimpered.

Roxas looked fully at his brother’s pathetic, pouting face. He sighed, closed his book, and leveled his eyes at Sora. “Okay.  What’s going on?”

“Riku’s band is playing some gig on Friday and he invited me to go,” he said.

“And?”

Sora huffed. “And, what does it mean??  What should I wear?  How can I make him love me??”

“Oh, my god,” our boy uttered blandly.  “You need to fucking chill.  Dress normal.  Be cool.  Maybe take a break from pining for one night and make him pine a little.”

“Wait, that’s...” Sora cupped his chin and hummed.  “That’s actually good advice.”

Roxas tsked. “Like you expected anything different.  I am the master of advice.”

“You are,” Sora grinned. “Sooo, what about you?”

Roxas glowered at his brother. “What about me?”

“Got any secret crushes?” Sora grabbed Roxas’s hands and began to mangle them.  “Seen anyone _kyoot_ lately?”

For the briefest of moments, the redhead from the bus’s face flashed in his memory.  He quickly banished the image.  “No. I hate literally everyone.”

Sora grinned and poked at Roxas’s side.  “Except...?”

“Except maybe our father,” he said. “Sometimes.”

Sora gasped and put a hand on his heart.  “You are cruel.”

Roxas shrugged and Sora patted his brother’s hand like a grandmother.  “You’ll find someone good, even if I have to kidnap and torture the two of you.”

“Oh boy,” Roxas drawled.  “You’re making the whole prospect sound so appealing.”

Sora grinned wickedly.  “It’s not love if it doesn’t grow from terror.”

When the bus arrived at school, our lovable brothers said their goodbyes and attended their respective classes.  The day passed quickly.  As a senior, Roxas was privy to certain freedoms, like two free periods. He used this time for his homework and naps.  It’s truly a rite of passage to find that one perfect nap place in your high school.  Certainly there was nothing better than sleeping in one of the unused sound-proof music rooms the school had available. 

A few months ago, Roxas had been accepted to the local university, Radiant Gardens State, at which point he began coasting through school and working.  Our boy supposed it would be good to stay close to home, at least until Sora graduated.  Couldn’t leave that kid alone for too long.  Once, when they were little, Roxas found a weepy Sora waist-deep in a thicket of saw grass trying to catch a toad.  Roxas had stayed close by his brother ever since then.  Saw grass would continue to be Roxas’s mortal enemy.

Once out of school, Roxas headed down the familiar mile-or-so walk to the Canteen.  He was starting to dread this walk.  He hadn’t had to actually walk it since he bought his car (RIP), and he wasn’t exactly welcoming it back into his life.  He slipped on his headphones and let his mind wander as the music filled his head.  He thought idly about how he would inevitably murder his brother sometime in the near future for some reason or another and have to figure out a plan for the body so that he wouldn’t go to prison. 

As he was considering dumping the body Dexter-like into the ocean, a flash of green passed over his mind’s eye.  He let the image of the stranger’s eyes in his brain dwell.  Why would our boy still be thinking about this rando?  Such a mystery.  Curiosity about the redhead spread like wildfire through Roxas’s thoughts.  A small voice in Roxas’s head squeaked about hoping the redhead would be on the bus after work today, too.  The louder, more sensible voice in his head snapped back at the little voice, demanding to know why that mattered and who exactly even cared about that scrub.

After about ten more minutes of brain argument later, Roxas had reached Cid’s Canteen.  It was vaguely western themed, but overall modern and hip, a real spot for the youth of the town to congregate.  When our boy pulled open the door he was greeted with the salty, dense smell of fry oil and the radio turned to the same station it always was.  The night began, then it had a middle, and eventually, an end.  Since it had been a pretty slow night, Cid let Roxas off about an hour early.  This didn’t happen often; our boy was shocked and relieved.  He might even get to read before going to bed!  Or he could go to bed early!  Or consume some sort of media!  The possibilities were astounding.

Roxas excitedly gathered his bag and said goodbye to Cid before he could change his mind and he scurried out the door.  Our boy then realized he didn’t have to hurry anywhere.  He started to stroll- maybe it was even a saunter.  It was definitely a meander.  He continued his leisurely pace to the bus stop and, unable to help himself, actually smiled.  It’s possible that our boy was feeling the rare, elusive sensation of having free time.

As Roxas waited, even his thoughts seemed to slow down.  He was managing to think of precious little when the bus pulled up in front of him.  He had the briefest flicker of excitement in his stomach as he thought of the redhead.  98.2% of his brain- the reasonable percentage- gawked at his utterly ridiculous gut.  He chided himself, knowing that surely these are insane feelings to have about someone he doesn’t even know.  Our boy was feeling a cocktail of emotions: elation, confusion, embarrassment, a pinch of shame, and a dash of horror.  He ambled onto the bus and sat, sipping on his tall, stiff, emotional drink. 

As the bus passed the stop the redhead would have gotten on, Roxas realized that, of course, the redhead wouldn’t be on the bus today.  Our boy was riding an hour earlier than his usual time and –assuming that this guy was in any way predictable- he wouldn’t be there anyway.  Roxas sat, feeling weighed down as the concrete unpleasantness of disappointment filled his bones.

The bus reached his stop and Roxas started the walk home.  Walk more trudge than saunter, stomach filled with more lead than butterflies.

*          *          *          *          *

The next day passed in much the same way: wake up, playful yet threatening fight with brother, go to school, learn (or not learn), complain about it, go to work.  At the end of Roxas’s shift at work, our boy had been cornered by Cid and told he had to work the coming Friday.  Roxas tried every avenue to get out of this.  He’d always had off on Fridays; Fridays, of course, were Roxas’s day to lock himself in his room and be utterly alone and forget that he shared this world with any people at all.  But APPARENTLY everyone and their dog decided to call out of work that Friday and Roxas drew the short straw.  Cid had literally threatened Roxas with dismemberment if he didn’t come in.  He could have just settled with threatening to fire him, but no.  As usual, Cid had to be a hostile-monster-type manager.  On the bright side, Roxas had the odd pleasure of seeing the redhead and his friend again on the bus.  Of course, he didn’t admit to _himself_ that it was at all a pleasure, but it was a small bright spot in his otherwise dull day.

Roxas’s Thursday went a little more like this: angrily wake up, nearly murder brother, rampage through the town, killing hundreds, angrily learning, complaining about everything, begrudgingly going to work, poisoning countless patrons, bathing in the blood of his enemies.

At the close of his shift at work, Roxas was pretty sure the only thing keeping him awake was pure, unadulterated fury.  He was _so mad._ Was it too much to ask for ONE CONSISTENT DAY OFF?  He was way beyond mentally threatening to murder people.  He was already seven years into his life sentence for mass murder at this point.  Mentally.  He plodded out of the Canteen and headed to the bus stop.  Once Roxas’s sweet little butt touched the station seat, everything went blurry and faded out. 

He was shaking.  Why was he shaking?  Roxas gasped, and his eyes fluttered open; he whipped his head around, trying to take in his surroundings.  He was on the bus.  He looked up, the guy with the red hair had a hand on his shoulder and was bracing him.

“Hey, kid, it’s okay,” he said, and concern bloomed behind his eyes, which was unnervingly alluring to our boy. –

Roxas nodded- why, he wasn’t sure.  He rubbed his eyes and shrugged off the stranger’s hand.  “Thanks for waking me up,” he muttered.

Redheaded guy straightened up and put a hand on his hip.  “Your stop is next.”

Roxas’s eyes widened.  He peered out the bus window and saw familiar landmarks under the strobe-like light of the passing lampposts. 

“Oh,” Roxas breathed.  He looked up and saw the redhead was already back in his customary seat.  Our boy sat frozen as the bus skittered to a stop and Roxas clamored to his feet in a tizzy.  He sped to the door and paused for the briefest moment, turning to look at the redhead.  He was looking out the window, but, sensing eyes on him, flicked his gaze over to our boy.  A smirk gradually grew on his face and he saluted Roxas.

Our boy would be very proud of this when he thought about it later: he raised an eyebrow, as the redhead had done when they’d first seen each other, and gave him a small smirk of his own.  Shoulders back, Roxas descended the few stairs, the picture of confidence and pride.

***             *             *             *             ***

 “Come onnnn,” Sora prodded.  “I’m sure it won’t be _that_ bad.  When was the last time you worked a Friday?”

Roxas fixed his brother with a solemn gaze.  “My first week there.  It was so busy I had a panic attack in the walk-in freezer.”

Sora pursed his lips.  “Did you do that to…” his grin spread like a virus.  “ _Chill out?”_

“I am going to rip off your face and use it as a lampshade,” Roxas said flatly.

His brother snickered uncontrollably.  “Or maybe to _cool off??”_

“I hate you so much,” Roxas head fell into his hands.  “That’s it.  I’m just gonna quit.”

Sora flapped a hand.  “You’re the best.  You can handle it, and you’ll make the megabucks.”

Roxas groaned.  “But I don’t want to!  I want to stay home and smash things with hammers!”

“Me too!” Sora said enthusiastically.  “Although, I’ll have to have Cloud pick up another hammer if we’re going to smash things together, like, at the same time.” The brunette’s face lit up, and he grabbed his brother’s elbow with both hands.  “OH!  Wait, what about the beach?  Late night beach trip?!”

Roxas frowned deeply.  He wanted to smash things and go to the beach without having to do the working part.  He finally, sluggishly, met his brother’s eyes and sighed like he was sighing out his will to live.  “Okay.”

The day passed too quickly for Roxas’s liking.  Despite his brother’s enticing promise to smash things and go to the beach at the end of his night, Roxas wasn’t at all looking forward to the rest of his day.  He was standing outside the Canteen before he knew it.  He hoped in vain that he could possibly get lucky and be mysteriously assassinated during this shift.It’s all about positive thinking.

As soon as Roxas was through the door, he immediately knew this night would be a different, special kind of hell.  There was equipment sprawled along the floor and Cid was setting up a small stage with amps and wires and all those types of things.

“What’s all this now?” our boy asked, obviously perturbed.

Cid grunted as his hoisted an amp on the stage.  He looked up at Roxas and practically growled.  “No dawdling.  We’re gonna be busy tonight.”

“I mean,” Roxas drawled as he walked around the bar and dropped his backpack on the floor.  “That wasn’t an answer, but okay.”

Cid slapped a hand against the bulletin board on the wall and pointed to a flyer.  The flyer was one that had been there nearly as long as Roxas had and honestly, it was pretty much just part of the wall at this point.  It read, ‘Open Mic Night at Cid’s Canteen- Bands Welcome!  Fridays from 10pm to 1am.’

“Huh,” Roxas grunted.  “And people actually come for this?”

Four hours later, our boy was in an insane tizzy.  People were everywhere!  Shouting drink orders at him!  Shouting everything, so much shouting!  If stopped at this moment, Roxas wouldn’t even know his own name.  He would only know fear. 

As musicians and bands began playing, Roxas was given a respite, and the activity about the bar thinned.  Barstools were occupied, but there were no longer swarms of human urchin clawing for the alcoholic nectar of the gods only our boy could provide.  He wiped the bar down and leaned against it, watching a woman with long, dark hair perform with a ukulele.  Generally, Roxas felt that ukuleles were just guitars for babies, and, since he wasn’t a baby, didn’t deem playing one acceptable, but this girl played well and was pleasant to listen to.  Maybe next time he _wasn’t_ working a Friday he and Sora could come and watch. 

The girl finished her song and smiled as applause filled the room.  She slid off the stool she was sitting on and stepped off the stage, high fiving someone nearby and hugging another.  The group at the foot of the stage was rambunctious, but in a fun-loving-big-ass-family sort of way.  It sickened Roxas.  How dare anyone be having actual fun when our boy was working.

The rambunctious group migrated up on stage and began plugging in guitars, fiddling with the amps, etc.  More musician jargon.  Cid then came on stage to announce them. “Alright, alright, settle down you varmints,” he spat. “Next up is a crowd favorite, for some reason.” He rolled his eyes as a few people whooped. “Fornaxis.”  Cid flourished unenthusiastically, and the whole bar exploded into applause.  

One thing was glaringly obvious to Roxas one he actually looked at their faces of the band members.  This was Riku’s band.  Our boy deducted this from the fact that Riku was strapping on his guitar and plucking a few strings experimentally.

Roxas looked around, now aware of who else should be here.  His eyes locked on familiar chocolate brown spikes bouncing excitedly in front of the stage.  Roxas rolled his eyes.  Of COURSE Sora would be so caught up in his potential boyfriend he couldn’t even come say hi.

“How’re you guys doin’ tonight?” Deafening shouts and clapping filled the room.

Roxas looked to the man at the microphone and blanched.  Said man, who was twisting the stand higher because he was a tall freak, was none other than the redhead from the bus.  You know.  THE redhead.  Owner of the green eyes that have been haunting our boy for the past five days.

Roxas hoped absently that the redhead would really suck and our boy would be so turned off that all of his stupid-ass feelings could go crawl in a corner and die.

“Alright, well, let’s get started,” the redhead nodded to the drummer- unmistakably the blonde he was on the bus with- and he clacked his drumsticks together rhythmically, signaling them to play.

Okay, so they sounded alright.  Pretty decent.  Roxas was still holding on to some fragment of hope that they would be horrendous and booed off the stage when the redheaded guy started singing.  Unfortunately for Roxas, this was not the case.  His voice was deep and sultry, yet also gravely; it was basically if sex had a singing voice.  But sexier than sex.  It took everything Roxas had not to go weak in the knees for this fool, like a fool.

They began to wrap up a few songs later.  While the crowd was roaring their approval, Sora appeared in front of Roxas at the bar.

“Sooo?” Sora bounced on his heels. “He’s pretty good right?”

“Who?” Roxas asked, terror striking his soul. “Oh, Riku.  Yeah, he’s pretty good.”

“I mean, they’re all good,” Sora began prattling on about what he called the best band in existence.  “Their bassist is something of a genius I’ve heard, or something…” Our boy didn’t care to listen so neither do we.

Roxas interrupted him. “You’re stalling,” he said, grabbing Sora’s face and smooshing it. “Find Riku and do the thing, you dingle.”

Sora’s lip trembled, but he nodded shakily.

The lights in the Canteen flickered on, and Cid shouted something about last call.  The light was sobering after the hazy drunk din that had swallowed Roxas’s surroundings.  Our boy finally felt like he could breathe again.  He started gathering his tips at the register as he hoped in vain that he’d never have to see another human again.

“Could I get a water?” a husky voice asked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back, if you’ve stuck around for chapter 2! Our little Roxas is really feelin’ himself but don’t worry, it won’t last long. I’ve decided I want to start listing some fun facts about the story at the start of each chapter, so here goes.
> 
> Fun Fact: Clavella, our boy’s last name, is Latin for “little key”

The voice was familiar to our boy and if it was who he thought it was, he didn’t want to turn around.  He focused on breathing.  Maybe he’d go away?

“Uh, please?”

Roxas let out a slow breath and turned around to face the voice.  Of course, it was the bus-riding-red-headed-lead-singer/guitarist guy.

“Oh hey,” he grinned with recognition.  “You’re that bus kid.”

What our boy wanted to say was one of the following: no, fuck off; more like the bus-t your face in kid; yeah and you’re the annoying bus asshole; how dare you wake me up so I don’t miss my stop; why would you be so nice to a stranger- who does that; who are you; is your hair natural; do you like blondes… okay this is just embarrassing stream of consciousness now.  When Roxas opened his mouth, it spoke for him. “My name is Roxas, not ‘kid’ or ‘bus kid’.”  Honestly, we should be congratulating our boy.  That could have gone way worse.

“And I’m Axel,” he purred.  I say that he purred and you might be like- what?- but yeah he did a real sultry introduction.  “Remember that.  Might need it later.”

Roxas’s eyebrows drew together.  His brain was ablaze and the panic was beginning to set in.  Since he’d had no experience whatsoever in any type of romantic situation, our boy was confused and scared.  Without knowing a way to proceed, he just stood there blankly like a stupid idiot.

Axel leaned over the bar, hand outstretched.  Roxas instinctively returned the gesture, feeling the warm, calloused hand engulf his own.  Oh… our Roxas needed an adult.

Seeming to finally wake up, Roxas stood up a bit straighter and said in a sarcastic tone, “Right.”  He grabbed a glass. “Water?”

“Unless you wanna give me something stronger.” Axel grinned.

“Well, technically, the bar’s closed,” our boy said.  He looked around for Cid, but he was nowhere to be found.

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Axel said, quirking an eyebrow.

Roxas studied him for a few seconds.  Thinking that he probably wasn’t trying to get him fired, Roxas reached for two shot glasses and a handle of Fireball.

Axel let out a low chuckle. “Who told you?”

Roxas looked up at him and tilted his head to the side like the sweetest, dumbest puppy.  “Huh?”

Axel nodded to the bottle. “It’s my favorite.”

Roxas busied himself with pouring the shots and hid a smile.  “I’m partial to it myself,” he said and slid one of the shots over the bar to the man.  

He picked it up and peered at Roxas.  “Are you even old enough to drink?” he asked.

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” our boy echoed, the faintest hint of a smirk on his face.

Axel raised his eyebrows humbly, as if to say, ‘touché’.  He raised his glass and clinked it against Roxas’s.

“To secrets,” he said.  Roxas tried to hide a smile and they both took the shot. 

Our boy turned and filled a glass of water and handed it to the redhead.

“Hey kid- uh, Roxas,” he paused to look out our boy, measuring his expression. “Do—”

“ROXAS!” The shout came from the stage and Roxas looked.  Sora was standing on the stage, Riku’s guitar slung over his shoulder, beaming ridiculously.  He waved and pointed excitedly at Riku, who was laughing next to him.

“You know that twerp?” Axel asked, taking a swig from the glass.

Roxas nodded gravely, wincing a little.  “My brother.”  Roxas mentally begged his brother not to.  Pleaded with him in his head.  _Please.  For me.  Don’t do it_.   _Stay over there and pretend we hate each other._

But he didn’t.  Come on, he couldn’t!  Sora came bounding over with Riku, much to our boy’s chagrin.  “Don’t worry about the bus tonight!  Riku is taking us home,” Sora said, and he smiled full force.  Just really let everyone have it.  If Roxas wanted, he could have counted all of Sora’s teeth, as they were all on display.  A vision like this is so powerful and optimistic, most people must turn away from it, lest they be burned by its brilliance.

“Still doing a late night beach trip?” Roxas asked his brother.

Sora’s nose wrinkled in sheepish worry.  “Raincheck?  I told Riku I’d go to the movies with him after we take you home.”

Our boy would have taken some intense offense to that if he wasn’t utterly preoccupied with the presence of the redhead.  Roxas gazed surreptitiously over at Axel, but he was already standing and pulling on a leather jacket.  He grinned at Riku and clapped him on the back in a manly, brotherly sort of way.  “Nice playing tonight.”

Riku grinned back and said, “Thanks, maybe one of these day’s we’ll actually sound _good_.”

They laughed.  Axel moved to grab his guitar case and Riku asked, “Need a ride back?”

“Nah, got Minnie fixed finally,” he answered.  He nodded a goodbye to the three of them and made his way to the door.

Roxas, in this moment, was panicking again.  He wanted to tackle that man to the ground and then throw him in a cage.  Maybe construct some sort of trap for him, like a mouse or bear trap.  Bear trap would probably be the best move.  What was he thinking, a mouse trap.  That’s _way_ too small!  Roxas, he’s just leaving!  Do something!  The time is nigh!

Our boy watched the man turn as he was walking out.  He paused and privately locked eyes with Roxas, sending him a devilish wink before slipping out the door.

Roxas flushed and gripped the bar, struggling to breath evenly.  “I’m in trouble,” he muttered.

“Hm? What?”  Sora asked.  He turned to Riku.  “Who’s Minnie?”

The sound of his brother’s voice snapped Roxas out of his infatuated fog and he straightened up and started cleaning the bar vigorously.

Riku chuckled and ruffled Sora’s hair.  “That’s his car.  It’s pretty old, so it’s in and out of the shop all the time.”

Roxas paused his cleaning and thought.  If he had a car, he probably wouldn’t be on the bus anymore.He went to wipe down the rest of the bar and heard a crinkle.  He looked down and froze. 

There, pinned under the redhead’s water glass, was a twenty dollar bill.

*          *          *          *          *

“OKAY,” Sora slammed his hands on the kitchen table and pushed himself out of his seat.  He rounded on his brother, who gave him a look that perfectly blended frightened and dumbfounded.  “ _What_ is wrong with you?”

Roxas’s expression became pained and he turned back to his breakfast.  “I can’t deal with your instability today.”

“Something’s happened,” Sora said, turning on his heel.  He began to pace around the kitchen, bare feet slapping on the linoleum floor.  “But what?”

“What are you talking about?” our boy asked in an exhausted tone.  He massaged the bridge of his nose dejectedly and prayed his brother would stop being so uncharacteristically observant.

“Well, if we’re being honest with ourselves, you’ve been weird for the last week,” Sora hummed and tapped his chin.  “I mean, you’ve been weird your whole life, but this is _different._ ”

Roxas rolled his eyes and took a timid bite of his cereal.

Sora motioned exasperatedly toward him.  “THIS is what I’m talking about,” Sora huffed.  “You’re quiet and blushy and moody like a damn teenager.”

Roxas, thinking he had been emotionally stealthy, couldn’t stop the slight flush from creeping up his cheeks.  “I _am_ a teenager.”

Sora watched his brother grow redder by the second.  The dawn of realization broke over his face.  “No way.”

Roxas snapped his head up and glared at Sora with crazy eyes.  “What?  It’s nothing!  There’s nothing!”

“But who?” Sora pondered out loud.  “And without telling me?”

“Ugh,” Roxas moaned and buried his head in his hands.  “Look, I can’t like the guy, I-I don’t even know him.”

Sora stood motionless for a few beats before wordlessly bouncing up and down, flailing his arms in what had to be some sort of tropical bird’s mating dance.  “You _like_ someone?!!”

A wave of pure terror crashed over Roxas.  “NO I DON’T,” he screamed.  “THERE’S NO ONE!  IT’S NOTHING.”

Sora was still hopping up and down.  “I thought you’d _killed_ someone!”

“Oh, I will!” Roxas lunged for the knife block on the counter but Sora was too quick.  Roxas was tackled and pinned to the ground in a matter of seconds. 

Sora lowered his face to his brother’s until their noses touched.  “ _Who.”_

Roxas scrambled to find some sort of feasible lie.  “Uh- well, you… wouldn’t know him!  He goes to a different school,” Roxas stammered.  “I mean, he would.  If he existed.”

“I’m so lucky you’re such a bad liar,” Sora smirked, looking entirely diabolical.  “You tell me who or I will give you the gnarliest wet willy of your life.”

Roxas grimaced up at him.  “You are so nasty.”

Sora shrugged and put his finger in his mouth.

“How old are you?!” Roxas flinched and Sora dragged his finger away from his face, a string of saliva dangling.  He inched a bit closer and Roxas caved.  “God, okay!  You’re the _worst,_ ” Roxas took a deep breath.  “It’s not even a big deal… but you know that guy… who sings in Riku’s band?”

Sora let out a piercing, girlish squeal and rolled off Roxas so he could roll on the ground in excitement.  “YOU LIKE AXEL, THIS IS SO EXCITING!”

Roxas covered his face with his hands in anguish.  “This is it.  My life is over.”  He made another feeble attempt at getting the knives.

Sora just smiled and swatted Roxas’ hand away.  “I am loving this,” he said.  He stood and dusted himself off.  “This is so perfect.”

Roxas glared up at his brother.  “I hate it when you love things.  You get all schemey.”

“Baby, this is fate.  I barely need to scheme at all,” he helped Roxas up off the kitchen floor.

The suspicion that Roxas felt at this moment was so intense that it nearly overpowered him.  He gripped the edge of the counter for support.  “I don’t even want to ask.  Just tell me why this is _so_ perfect.”

Sora, if at all possible, grinned wider.  Roxas looked on in horror, believing that his face would be split by such a terrible, ever-widening smile.  Miraculously, Sora’s face held together through the trauma.  “Well, first, when Riku figures out how much he loves me, we’ll be together forever and sit next to you and Axel in matching rockers on the southern-style wraparound porch of the house we’ll have built over the years.  OOH and AS SOON as we are all together and in loooove we can do a beach trip!  Is there anything more romantic than burying the one you love in the sand?”  Roxas interrupted briefly to gag and then Sora continued.  “Second, much more presently, the band is throwing a party at Axel’s apartment.  TONIGHT.  And guess who’s invited?”

“I dunno, some type of swamp monster?” Roxas asked, sounding as if he’d given up on any hope at all.

“No!  Well, maybe.  It’s me.” Sora whipped out his phone from his back pocket and tippity typed at the speed of light.  Several seconds later there was a ping and Sora’s horrifying grin returned with a vengeance.  “And now you too.”

Roxas blanched.  His lip trembled.  “Please, no.”

Sora’s grin turned devious.  “Okay,” he drawled sweetly.  “Then I guess Riku and I will just be unsupervised and I’ll finally try to seduce him.”

Roxas’s nostrils flared.  His baby brother would seduce NO ONE on Roxas’s watch!  “Okay, _fine,_ I’ll go, but just to keep an eye on you.” He crossed his arms and fumed.

Sora patted Roxas’s head.  “Protective older brother always wins out.”  He began leading our sweet boy upstairs.  “Now, let’s pick out our sexiest outfits to wear.”  It was about that moment that Roxas felt his soul leave his body.  It would never enter again, so from this point onward Roxas was soulless.  Just something to keep in mind.

*          *          *          *          *

“This is the worst night of my life,” Roxas said.  The two were standing at the door to Axel’s apartment— in their sexiest outfits, I might add.  Roxas was in a plain black v-neck and ripped jeans (the sexy, punky homeless look) and Sora was in something slutty.  I can’t even describe it; it was so, so slutty.

“Don’t worry!” Sora flashed his brother a winning smile.  “I’ll be with you the whole time.”

The second the two of them walked through the door, Sora was gone.  As if by some sort of sorcery, Sora had located Riku and in a wink and was already dangling off his arm.

Roxas gagged, betrayal and distaste lying heavy on his tongue.

“What’s the problem?” the question hit him like a wrecking ball.  Nearly knocked our boy over.  “Does it smell in here or something?”

Roxas’s eyes widened.  Don’t worry, Roxas.  His vision only senses movement.  Just stay… perfectly still… 

“Hello?  Kid, you alive in there?”

Oh, my bad, that’s a T-Rex.  The tall, lanky man that came to greet him waved a hand in his face.  Roxas twitched as this bozo had the nerve to knock on his forehead.  He glared up at said bozo and it was, as he suspected, Axel: the mysterious, beautiful, yet obnxious redhead from the bus and stuff.

“There he is,” Axel said in a sing-songy voice.

Roxas nearly hissed in response, but silently held his ground, staring down the redhead stubbornly.

“ _I_ know what it is,” he clucked his tongue.  “You need a drink.”  And with a spin, he was off to the kitchen. 

Roxas closed the front door behind him and turned to survey the room.   The other members of the band and the ukulele chick were playing beer pong at a table that took up most of the living room.  Sora was watching the game and sending lingering glances at Riku whenever it was his turn to play.  Let’s be real, he never took his eyes off Riku.  Axel reappeared from the kitchen, carrying two cheap ass beers.  “For you, kind sir.”

Roxas thanked him and took the beer, careful not to touch Axel’s hand as he did (you just can’t be too safe), and popped the tab.  The beer was watery, but cold and refreshing all the same.

“Wanna watch the game?”  Axel nodded toward the beer pong. 

Roxas shrugged, acting very casual and noncommittal for a person who already had nervous sweat dripping down his back.

The blonde man who had been on the bus with Axel was playing on the losing team.  He turned to Axel, pouted, and flicked an errant piece of sandy blonde hair out of his face.  “Ax, where are your motherfucking manners?”

Axel raised an eyebrow and took a sip from his beer.  “They’re up your butt.  What are you talking about?”

He huffed and gestured to Roxas.  “You haven’t introduced us!”

Axel looked at Roxas, looking genuinely worried.  “Shit, my bad.  You right,” he said.  “Roxas, that’s Demyx, I think you already know Riku,” Riku saluted him and then immediately went back to talking to Sora.  “They’re losing pretty badly to our very own brother-sister team champions, Zexion and- ugh- Tifa,” the man in question gave Roxas a curt nod, seeming very focused on the game.  Roxas recognized him as the bass player from the band; he had a smooth, calm sort of aura about him and hair that was a pretty and modern shade of grey-blue, you know, the kind of shade .0001% of the population can pull off and everyone else is jealous of them.  The woman, Roxas remembered was the one who had played her ukulele before the boys.  She was a tall, dark, and handsome woman- about a foot taller than her .0001% of a partner/brother- with long deep brown, nearly black hair, a –ahem- voluptuous bosom, and legs for fuckin’ days.  She waved and Roxas and smiled.

“There, now you know everyone,” Axel said.  “Now,” he nodded to the beer pong game in front of them.  “I called playing the winners.  You any good?”

Roxas scoffed and let out a wry, proud chuckle.  “Oh, dude.  You have no idea.”

Axel smirked, a look of surprise on his face.  “Alright then, I got me a good partner.”

“I wish I did,” Riku said.  He motioned to the lone cup in front of them and their opponent’s five cups.  “This is just depressing.”

Demyx made an indignant face at his beer pong partner, or his BPP.  “Riku, I’m trying my best!  _Isn’t that enough for you?!”_

“It is not,” his BPP replied.

“Listen, ya twat,” the blonde put a hand on his hip in an attitudinal sort of way.  “It’s not my fault the wonder twins over there activated to the shape of really, really good beer pong players.”

Everyone’s attention was on the wonder twins.  Well, wonder siblings.  Tifa smirked and nonchalantly tossed the ball, sinking the last cup.  She and super chic .0001%, Zexion, high fived in a gravely serious manner.  Like how Yzma and Kronk high five in the lab with their cute matching lab coats on.

“NOOOO,” Demyx wailed.  “You’re _freaks!_ Get out of my house!!”

“Hey, this is MY HOUSE- er, apartment” Axel shook a fist at Demyx.  “You lost, ya fruitcake.  Accept defeat.”

“I WON’T,” he raged.  “Not at the hands of these-these- FARTNOZZLES!”

“No need to resort to name-calling,” Tifa tossed her hair over her shoulder.  “We’re just embarrassingly good at this.  I’ll sit the next game out so our dear Demyx can experience victory.”

“Yeah, yeah, Tifa you’re such a saint,” Demyx said rolling his eyes.

As the woman walked toward the rear of the apartment, she smiled and winked at Roxas. 

Roxas, taken aback, blushed and looked away.

She stuck a tongue out playfully at Axel before heading into the kitchen.  Axel flipped the bird at her retreating back.

Riku turned to Sora.  “Be my new partner?”

“Wooow, okay,” Demyx sniffed, obviously offended.  He turned to Zexion with confidence in his heart and hope in his eyes.  “Zexy, I would be honored if you would be my BPP.”

“Unfortunately, it’s only an honor for you,” Zexion muttered, but he joined Demyx at the opposite end of the table.

“Everyone’s getting _real_ spicy in here, so it’s time for me to get lit.”  Demyx marched to the kitchen and called over his shoulder, “Anyone else?  Shots?”

“Me! Me me me!” Sora raised his hand.  “Riku and I want double shots!”

Riku laughed and let himself be towed toward the alcohol in question.

Roxas felt a deep, real fear punch his guts and began to march toward the kitchen as one would march into grim battle.  He was yanked back by a hand on his shoulder.

“Oh, no, you don’t.  You’re my partner!  You have an obligation!”  Axel chided and steered him to the beer pong table.

“B-But—” Roxas sputtered, sending a frantic glance to his brother reaching for a shot glass in the other room.

“Now, now, Roxy, just settle down and deliver us this sweet, sweet win.”  As Axel handed him the pong ball he leaned in and murmured, “Your brother will be fine.  It’s all good folks here.”  He paused.  “Except for Tifa.  She’s a snake with tits.”

Roxas nodded slowly, filing that comment away in his brain for later consideration. 

Once Demyx returned, the game began.  Roxas then, effortlessly and with immense grace and immeasurable skill, made the first cup, which earned quite the impressed look from Axel.

***             *             *             *             ***

Some say it was the quickest game in beer pong history.  Some say that Roxas played so heartily and impeccably that every living being in the entire mile radius around them fell to its knees in reverence.  Some say that Axel was blinded by the brilliance of his partner’s gamesmanship.  Eyes burned right out of his head.  Some say the gods themselves awarded Roxas with a golden solo cup as a trophy.  Some say the chemistry betwixt Axel and Roxas was so palpable during the game that a bolt of lightning struck the apartment and gave everyone superpowers.  Apparently you can still see that burn marks in the carpet.  Some say that Demyx cried so hard and long that it sprang a river that still runs through this little burg today.  Some say that this loss led to the tragic and devastating war that ravaged that land just a year later.  But, this is all hearsay, just rumors; I wasn’t there, and we must rely on the tales of our forebears- the bears that came before us.  Though the stories of this fateful game are vast and endless, they all share on thing in common.  Axel and Roxas won the night.  The aftermath was so bloody I dare not share it with you.  I shall say only that the two bowed out of the next game, knowing not to use their powers further and tempt the fates. 

Riku and Sora began playing Zexion and Demyx to hopefully bring some life back into the war-torn apartment. 

“I don’t care WHAT that last game was like,” Demyx said.  “We can pick ourselves back up and do this.”  He jammed a thumb toward Sora and Riku.  “These two are so wasted, we _have_ to win.”

Sora and Riku were both giggling in each other’s faces and passing a bottle of some super sweet icing flavored vodka between them.  They took swigs after every attempted throw and were now swaying slightly.

Sora put a hand up, silencing the room.  “Y’all are hearin’ me say this.  Imma say it.  I’m callin’ island.”

Riku gasped and threw a hand over his mouth in shock and awe.

Sora reared back to make the shot and accidentally stepped on the toe of his own sock and tumbled backward, somehow releasing the ball in such a way to make a stunning island shot.

When Zexion took the two cups away, only one remained.  I think you know what happened at this point.  Sora and Riku managed to make the last cup after approximately fifteen turns and Demyx and Zexion lost a stupid game to a couple of real stupid people.

Sora and Riku were filled with such colossal pride and happiness they couldn’t even express it.  Riku clutched Sora’s shoulders and worked his mouth up and down but to no avail.  He had no words.  Sora just grinned and his eyes glazed over.  Riku, his mouth set in a determined frown, upended the bottle of definitely-only-meant-for-cocktails-sweet vodka and sputtered as he pulled it away from his face.  He may or may not have wiped some dribbles from his chin.  He then dragged a chair to the middle of the room and propped his foot on it in a victorious pose.  He brandished the bottle, raising it high in the air.  “At the conclusion of this auspicious beer pong thing, I’d like to raise a toast and have a glass.”

Sora was beaming at Riku, looking every bit as drunk and entranced as he probably was.  He grabbed a random beer and raised it, accidentally pouring a little on his face.  His stupid grin didn’t falter at all.

Roxas raised his beer and looked over at Axel, whose beer was in the air and eyes were already on our boy.  When Roxas’s eyes met his, there was an explosion of cold fluttering in his stomach.  He blushed and quickly looked back to the scene in front of them.

“TO LOVE AND WAR,” Riku shouted. 

The room toasted and clinked.  Axel knocked his can against Roxas’s, and leaned in slightly to murmur, “To making a good team.”

“AND WAR,” Roxas hollered.  Now anxious and embarrassed, he raised the beer to his lips and downed the rest of it.

Meanwhile, Riku, finishing the vodka, threw the bottle over his shoulder, locked and loaded the leg that that had been propped up on the chair, and proceeded to kick the unassuming chair across the room.  He turned to Sora, and in a blink, Riku’s arms were around his waist and he, in one hasty, sloppy motion, pressed his lips to Sora’s.  Sora, not missing a beat, deepened the kiss as he grasped Riku’s shoulders and wrapped his legs around his torso, koala-style.

Whoops and wolf whistles erupted and the entire party cheered as Sora and Riku shared their first kiss.  They looked adorable and absolutely sloshed, clutching onto each other for dear life.  Roxas smiled in spite of himself and clapped with everyone else.  The praise began to fade to shouts of disgust gagging noises and as the kiss became… prolonged.  Our boy’s smile faded and he turned to leave the room.  As happy as he was, he _wasn’t_ keen on watching his little brother sloppy drunk make out with his new boyfriend. He went into the kitchen, solely because it was empty.  He leaned against a counter and sighed.  Roxas wasn’t sure how long he stood there in thought before a voice split the silence.

“Hey.” 

Roxas looked up as Axel approached him.  “What are you doing here all alone?”

Our boy gave him a sideways smile and shrugged.  “When my brother starts kissing with tongues, it’s my cue to get the fuck out.”

“Hey, can’t blame you there,” Axel let out a light laugh.  “Other than that nastiness, you having a good time?”

Roxas was surprised to realize the answer to that question was yes, even with his brother near-fornicating in the other room.  “I think I am, yeah.”

One of Axel’s short little eyebrows rose.  “You think?”

“I’m a mystery even to myself,” Roxas said.

The redhead snorted.  “No kidding.”

Before Roxas could try to dissect the meaning of the conversation they were having, Axel started to walk closer to him.  “I can’t figure you out, kid.”

Roxas giggled shrilly, like a nervous girl-child.  “Yeah, me neither,” he said lamely.

Axel was slowly closing the space between them, which made our dear, sweet Roxas turn into the widest-eyed, tiniest, trembling-mouthed slow loris in existence.  Our boy whipped his head around frantically like the cornered animal he was and searched for an exit.  “So, uh,” he stuck his hand out, partly for a handshake, but also partly to keep distance between them.  “Great game, happy to have found a match for me- not like- like a match, but a partner, but only to play beer pong with,” Roxas rambled. 

Axel returned his handshake with a good-natured smirk.

“Anyway,” Roxas snatched his hand back too quickly.  “I think it’s time I go home now.”

Axel nodded, then took a slow step toward our boy, voice lowering.  “I’m happy you came tonight.”

Our boy took a step back, only to be met with the sharp jab of the counter. “I guess I am too,” he breathed.

“What is it?” Axel asked, concerned.  There he was again, being concerned!  Why was his concerned face so attractive!?He took another step, now just a hairsbreadth away from our boy.

Roxas clutched the counter behind him, trying to jam himself further backward.  “N-Nothing.  I’m fine,” he meant to sound casual, but when the words came out of his mouth they was nearly a whimper.

“Roxas.”  He leaned in toward our boy, neck craned.  Roxas shivered as their thighs touched slightly.  Axel’s hands reached slowly to grip the counter on either side of Roxas’s hips.  “I was wondering if—”

They heard a cough followed by a voice from the kitchen entrance.  “Uh, Axel?”

Axel turned smoothly, grabbing Roxas’s drink from his hand and sipping as he regarded the man in the doorway.  “What’s up, Zex?”

“Riku and his friend are redefining what it means to be drunk and disorderly,” the man said.  “You might want to check on them before they get sick.”

From the living room, our heroes in the kitchen heard the suspicious sound of glass shattering and then the dreaded guttural harshness of someone retching violently.

Zexion gestured grandly toward the living room.  “Might want to hurry.”

Axel huffed and jogged out, Roxas following close behind.  Just not, you know, too close.

Sora was sprawled on the floor on his back, laughing hysterically as Riku puked into a conveniently placed trash can.

Roxas walked up to Sora and leaned over him.  “Hey buddy,” he said and patted his brother’s head gingerly.  “How are you doing?”

“Listen bucko,” Sora slurred.  “I can handle me.  I can handle you and your… butt.  Can you handle me?”

Roxas grimaced as Sora let out some ugly love child of a burp and a hiccup.  “I’m hoping Riku will be doing all of the handling from now on.”

“Oh, ROXAS,” Sora yelled in his face and, while aiming for his brother’s nose, poked him in the neck.  “You’re such a romantic.”

Roxas fought the frown that tugged at his lips and also fought the urge to leave Sora to die.  He was in a full on war with himself, honestly.  He took a deep breath through his nose and calmed himself.  “How ‘bout we go outside, huh?”

Sora did finger guns at his brother and winked with both eyes.  He tugged at a strand of Riku’s super hip, cool, and ~totally natural~ silver hair.  “Hey hottie, I got an idea.  Let’s go outside.”

Riku’s eyes widened so slowly and he nodded enthusiastically. 

Axel hefted Riku’s arm over his shoulder, and Roxas dragged Sora out by the ankle.  Sora squealed with glee the whole way.  Our sober heroes dumped the drunkards on the front lawn and watched them laugh and roll around.

Axel sat on the front step and looked up our boy, patting the concrete next to him.  “Care to sit?”

Roxas hesitated for a moment.  Watch out, son.  He’s probably going to be all murmur-y and sexy again.  Proceed with caution.  Without permission from his brain, his body sat.

“I’d apologize for that—” Axel nodded to Riku.  “—but I have a feeling that this is not new to you.”

Roxas gave him a sideways smile.  “Riku’s parents were out of town a lot last year, and I was introduced to this… scenario.”  Roxas looked at the two in the grass, who were now making out again.  “I mean, the kissing is new, but I suppose I always knew this day was coming.”

“Kinda like the apocalypse,” Axel commented.

Roxas shrugged.  “Looks like the apocalypse to me.”  Riku then started to vomit, which made Sora vomit.  “They’re disgusting.”

Axel wrinkled his nose. “You’re not wrong.”

There was a short pause in the conversation, filled with only the sound of the two lovebugs getting sick in the grass.

Axel spoke again.  “What about you?”

Roxas narrowed his eyes at a blade of grass he’d begun ripping up.  “What ABOUT me?”

“You’re not disgustingly into someone?”  Axel asked innocently.

“Nope,” Roxas said.  He glared harder at his grass victim.  “Never found someone I was inclined to be disgusting with.”

“Really?  Never?”  Axel asked, sounding sincerely surprised.

Roxas threw his mangled piece of grass and, having nothing else to distract him, mustered his strength and turned to look at Axel.  He gulped.  The porch light behind him illuminated his red hair in a halo, the light giving his face a blurry, dreamlike sheen.  Our boy’s lip quivered, and he began frantically searching for a way out of this conversation.  He fumbled in his pockets for his phone and checked the time.  “It’s late,” was all our boy said. 

He put his phone down on the step next to him and looked at Axel for a moment too long.  He felt pulled to him like a magnet.  Roxas felt a deep wanting, seeing Axel staring back at him, an urge to touch and be touched.  Then he felt panic and fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, and –though he wouldn’t admit it to himself—fear of love.

Axel searched our boy’s eyes; they looked terrified and frantic.  He looked away from our boy and sighed.  “Roxas—”

Roxas stood, unwilling to hear what Axel would say next.  “I’ve gotta go,” he said, too loudly.

“Wait, listen—” Axel stood and took a step toward our boy, but Roxas was already halfway across the yard and shuffling the two drunk-in-love-birds to Riku’s car. 

As Axel came closer, Roxas scrambled for Riku’s keys in his pocket like he was in a horror movie and Axel was a terrifying masked killer.  By the time Axel (AKA murderer extraordinaire) was to the car, Roxas had shoved the bodies of his brother and Riku in the backseat and slipped into the driver’s side. 

Roxas could see Axel’s mouth moving through the window but Roxas shrugged and pantomimed that he couldn’t hear him because of the car and shrugged a few more times before starting the car and driving off post-haste.  Axel was left in the dust, looking concerned and confused.  He held Roxas’s phone in his hand and looked at it for a long time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm two days late updating!!! I'm so sorry- I was traveling and I had to unexpectedly extend my trip. Hopefully from now on, I'll be able to stick with Sunday updates. 
> 
> Also, for some reason, I couldn’t resist throwing in a nod to my favorite college drinking game. Sorry I’m not sorry.
> 
> Fun Fact: The Sora/Roxas dynamic was based on my relationship with my best lady, my cousin, my Charsauce.

A lot of things were lucky for Roxas that night.  Firstly, he had luckily been of a sober enough state of mind to safely drive away from Axel and to Riku’s dorm.  Secondly, Roxas had luckily gotten the two corpses walking and helped them flop into Riku’s bed.  Thirdly, the corpses continued to be dead as Roxas tucked them in, so our boy didn’t have to listen to them be all… affectionate.

Some things were unlucky for our boy that night.  Namely, he had no bed or pillow.  He had found an old stuffed dog on Riku’s bed that would suffice as a pillow and fashioned a nest-like bedding on the floor out of some clothes he found.  He felt unlucky as he looked at his brother and his new love.  Of course, he felt this way, but that wasn’t the case, was it?  He _was_ lucky in love, but he also spat in the face of lady luck at every turn.  Some brief bit of foreshadowing: he will continue to rudely expectorate in lady luck’s face.

Roxas lay down on the floor and pulled a hoodie up to his neck like a blanket.  He closed his eyes and thought of Axel, who, from what Roxas could tell, just wanted to connect with him.  He wondered why every time he was faced with that man, he lost his nerve.  He didn’t seem so scary now, in Roxas’s head.  He imagined how Axel looked earlier in the soft glow of the porch light.  Our boy’s heart fluttered and his stomach churned.  Oh, that’s right, my mistake.  He did seem scary just now.

He sighed and opened his eyes, taking in the room.  It seemed cluttered and confused, a reflection of the cacophony in Roxas’s mind and heart.  He turned over on his side and surrendered to the feeling of displacement and loneliness.

*          *          *          *          *

Roxas awoke to the sound of wet smacking.  What is that sound, Roxas?  He’d never heard that sound in such close proximity.  What could it possibly be?  An alien egg hatching?  Some sort of ghost excreting ecto-spooge?  Two very wet otters fighting to the death?  Roxas frowned and his eyelids creaked open.  His bleary eyes took in his surroundings.  He wasn’t at home.  He wasn’t even in bed.  Was his pillow a… stuffed dog?

The night before came back to Roxas so suddenly that he gasped.  The smacking stopped.  Seriously, what was that sound?  Our boy sat up and looked around, remembering that yes, he was supposed to be on the floor of Riku’s dorm sleeping on hoodies and sweaters.  He turned to find Sora and Riku basically mashed into one person on Riku’s teeny single bed.  They were cheek to cheek and staring at Roxas, both with wild, terrified eyes.

Roxas blinked.  Oh.  OH.  “Really, you two?!  I’m _right here!”_

Sora smiled guiltily.  “We’re just making out a little!  Can you blame us?”

“YES.” Roxas threw the stuffed animal at them. “YOU’RE NASTY.”

Sora tried to catch the dog but it bounced off his face.  It landed in his lap and he picked it up.  “Aw, it’s Moogle!  You kept him?”

Riku shrugged noncommittally and bowed his head, trying to hide under his bangs as his blush grew.

“When did I give this to you, third grade?” Sora asked, fingering the tattered dog’s ear.

Riku seemed to gather himself and flapped a hand dismissively.  “Sometime around then, I guess.  I don’t know.  I didn’t even know I still had it.”

Roxas raised an eyebrow at him, knowing damn well he had found it on Riku’s pillow the night before.  Riku shot Roxas a look that said, very definitively, keep your fucking mouth shut.  Roxas gave him a coy smile and a slight shrug.  Riku’s nostrils flared at him but his grip around Sora remained relaxed and very not suspicious.  Roxas reached into his pocket for his phone but just felt… more pocket.  His eyebrows stitched together as he tried his other pockets.

A flashback played in Roxas’s head of himself sitting with Axel, with his phone in his hand, then running away, with his phone not in his hand.  He groaned loudly.  “One of you needs to kill me right now.”

“What? Why?”  Riku rolled over and retrieved his phone, which was somehow in immaculate shape and fully charged.  He barked out a laugh when he unlocked it and showed it to Sora.

Sora read the text message from Axel and grinned evilly.  “This is incredible.  Rox, are you sure you didn’t do this on purpose?  Maybe subconsciously?”

“Yes, very Cinderella of you,” Riku said.

Roxas flopped back onto the floor and rolled around in anguish.  “Riku, can you just please go over to Axel’s and get my phone for me.”

“No can do-sie, buddy,” Riku said.  He showed our boy the text from Axel.  “Ax is working a double today, so you’ll just have to drop by his work for it when he gets off.”

Roxas pouted at them both.  “Do it for me?”

“We can’t,” Sora beamed at Riku.  “We have a date tonight.”

“We can drop you off, though,” Riku offered.

“But!” Roxas grasped at this last straw despairingly, “Who will take me home?”

Riku leaned down and patted Roxas’s head.  “There, there.  I’m sure Axel would _love_ to take you home.”

Roxas blanched.  His brain couldn’t even work up a retort, because he was completely frozen in abject terror.

Sora and Riku just chuckled at him.  Riku got out of bed and threw a towel over his shoulder.  “I’m gonna hit the shower, and then I’m taking you two goons home.”

Riku shut the door to the bathroom and Roxas murmured, “You’re the goon here, you… goon…”

Sora rolled his eyes at his brother.  “Come up here and talk to me.”

Roxas grimaced at him.  When Sora’s only response was to pat the bed next to him menacingly, Roxas obliged.  He plopped face down on the bed and Sora smoothed his hair.

“Don’t lie to me when you answer this question, okay?” Sora warned.  “Does Axel scare you because you genuinely like him, or because he’s some sort of monster?”

Roxas frowned into the sheets.  “Why can’t it be both?” he mumbled.

“Oh, it can,” Sora said.  “I was just making sure I was right.”

Roxas grumbled incoherently.

“Let this be a little harsh brotherly honesty, then,” said Sora sagely.  “If you keep pushing him away, he’ll stop being there.  If you like him, you need to be brave and _do something_ about it.  Otherwise, you’ll lose your chance.”

Roxas peaked up at his brother curiously.  Sora wasn’t serious very often, so when he was, Roxas listened.  Sometimes.  He tried to, anyway.  “Not like _you’ve_ had to deal with this.  You and Riku have been in love with each other since kindergarten.”

“I guess that’s true,” Sora laughed and wagged his eyebrows and asked, “Are you happy for meee?”

“Ugh, I _guess,_ ” Roxas said in an exasperated tone and the two brothers laughed.  Roxas got off the bed and disassembled his nest by way of kicking the hoodies and sweaters in all different directions.  “Of course I’m happy for you.  You and Riku just seem… right for each other.”

Sora tilted his head to the side and slapped on a lopsided grin.  “So do you and Axel.”

Roxas began throwing whatever was on Riku’s dorm room floor at Sora and didn’t stop until Riku came back and physically disarmed him.  The three piled into Riku’s car and headed to the Clavella abode.  When they arrived, Sora was practically bouncing in his seat.

“Riku!” he nearly shouted.  “Come walk us to the door so I can tell Rainy Guy the good news!”

“So weird that you call our dad ‘Rainy Guy’,” Roxas muttered.  It was weird, but Roxas was really just upset because Mr. Cloud Clavella loved Riku, and on multiple occasions called him his “favorite son”.  It was wildly unfair because when Roxas was a child, Cloud had made him promise to never get into a relationship under his roof.  Roxas was simply too perfect a child for Cloud to ever accept a romantic partner for him.  Ultimately it just would be unfair for that love interest to never even have a chance at Cloud’s blessing.  With Sora, a romantic partner could only improve his whole… situation.  Roxas grumbled his way up the driveway.

Sora rang the doorbell about a thousand times before Cloud opened the door.

“No, thank you,” he said and tried to close the door, but Sora got one of his huge clown shoes to stop it at the last second.

“Daddy guy,” Sora addressed him.  “Riku and I are an _item_ now.”  He brandished their intertwined hands at him.  “Eh?  Ehhhh?!”

Cloud gave them both the smallest smile, which was nearly impossible to detect with the naked eye and only fractionally detectable with a microscope, before his face returned to its usual apathetic state.  “Riku, so nice to have you one step closer to being my legal son.  Sora, good work.  Don’t screw it up.”

Riku saluted Cloud and gave Sora a chaste peck on the temple before heading back to his car.

As Riku drove away, the two brothers toddled into the house.  Cloud closed the door and said, “He doesn’t say much.  I like that.”

Roxas felt a pang of anxiety at Cloud ever meeting Axel, a.k.a. he-who-could-not-shut-the-fuck-up.

“And Roxas,” Cloud was already sitting down at the table to resume his crossword.  “Single as ever, I presume?”  His father’s tone was ambiguously threatening.

Roxas replied with some light sulking and a resenting confirmation.

Sora nudged his brother, winking.  “Not for long.”

“What was that?” Their father asked.

“Oh, _nothing,_ ” Sora sang. 

The two skipped up the stairs to Roxas’s room.  Sora plopped on the bed and rolled around for good measure.  “So what should we do while we await nightfall?  Video games?” he asked hopefully.

“I wish,” Roxas sighed.  “I have homework and final exams to study for.” He hauled his book bag on the bed and began unpacking some books and notebooks.

“Me too!  Let’s alternate,” Sora turned on the television and PS2.  “Bet you we can both finish our homework and also beat Katamari Damacy, in its entirety, by the end of the day.”

“That sounds…” The blonde searched for the words.  “Like the most productive day of my life.”  Roxas was being utterly serious, that’s a pretty productive day.  Like three birds with one stone.

And so the boys did.  They got their schoolwork done and were Making the Moon by the time Sora’s phone chirped with the message from Riku that said he was on his way.  Once the boys were showered, styled, dressed, and redressed (Sora didn’t like either of their outfits), they were ready.  Physically.  Most likely, they were not ready mentally.  They descended the stairs to find Riku sitting at the kitchen table with Cloud, heads together conspiratorially.

“What’s all this, now?” Roxas asked, a sprinkle of jealously and just a dash of irritation in his voice.

Cloud straightened up.  “I was telling my son here how I was blacklisted in several countries in my youth.”

“Ugh, dude, you’ve got to get some new stories,” Sora said.  “We’ve all heard it.  So you wrote a book.  BIG WHOOP.”

Cloud fixed his sons (minus Riku) with a flat stare.  “I wish I could have gone through with surrendering you to the state.”

“Yeah, but you couldn’t,” Sora jabbed a finger at his father.  “You wanna know why?  ‘Cause you’re _soft.”_

“And I was naïve enough to hope for some kind of karmic reward for that someday,” Cloud sighed heavily.  “Sora, try not to let your personality drive Riku away.  I treasure his company.”

Riku smiled and nodded in a way that said, ‘I treasure your company too, Rainy Guy.’

Roxas made a face.  “Aren’t you wondering at least a little why I’m going on their first date with them?”

The corner of Cloud’s mouth twitched, whether in amusement or disgust, no one knows for sure.  “That’s exactly the type of question I would never want to know the answer to.”  He disappeared back into the kitchen, and, since that’s how conversations end with Cloud, the boys left to begin their epic-same-time-not-the-same-place-not-actually-a-date double date.

***             *             *             *             ***

 “We’re here, you know,” Riku said.  They had arrived, as he said, and were parked outside of Kupo Coffee, also known as the only place to get good fair-trade coffee in this tiny burg. 

“I’m,” Roxas frowned.  “…aware.”

“Rox, you can _do this,_ ” Sora said.  He leaned back from the front seat and shook Roxas’s shoulder.  “Just picture him–”

“What, in his underwear?” Roxas blushed angrily.  “I hardly think that’s appropriate in this scenario.”

Sora looked quite taken aback.  “I was gonna say picture him as something super nonthreatening, like a puppy or something.”

The three sat in the car in silence for a moment before Sora began cackling.  “Girl, you dirty!” he accused.

“I think I’m in hell,” Roxas muttered.  He took a few deep breaths through his nose as he mustered his courage.

Our boy steeled himself as he got out of Riku’s car.  Sora may or may not have barked at him in encouragement.  How barking was encouraging was beyond our boy, but he felt a little braver all the same.  As twilight set over Hollow Bastion/Radiant Gardens/Who Even Cares and the rosy glow of sunset cooled, Roxas walked up to the door of Kupo Coffee.  He noted the closed sign and tried the door- locked.  Elation!  Maybe he wouldn’t have to go through this at all!  Oh, but wait, Roxas still needed his phone.  His elation seeped out of him like a deflating balloon and he was disappointed again.

Roxas knocked on the door and peaked in just in time to see Axel, all in black and wearing an apron, sweeping the floor.  If Roxas was being honest with himself, which he wasn’t, he would have thought that Axel looked like an adorable, hipster, lanky hunk of something or other.  The hunk caught sight of Roxas at the door, and the force of the sincere, unstoppable smile that spread over Axel’s face nearly bowled over our boy.  Axel stashed his broom and unlocked the door to let Roxas in.

Roxas, afraid to open his mouth lest he drool a little, gave Axel a curt, professional nod when he walked through the door.  He had hoped this would be a business transaction.  Nod, get phone, nod, maybe a courteous bow (if Axel was lucky), and lastly, leave. 

This was not what Axel had hoped this transaction to be.  “I’ve got a few more things to do before I can close up.  Do you want a coffee while you wait?”

Roxas wrinkled his nose.  “I don’t like coffee.”

“Tea?” Axel asked.

Roxas slumped and dejectedly dumped his expectations in his mental trash can.  This evening was spiraling out of control already.  He threw caution to the wind and nodded at Axel.  If he was going to be winging it, he needed some tea. “Please.”

Axel went behind the counter and grinned at our boy.  “What’ll it be?”

A silent moment stretched before Roxas bullied himself into responding.  “Chai,” he swallowed and added with unnecessary indignation, “With a little cinnamon on top.”

“A man after my own heart.”  Pride shined in Axel’s eyes.  “Excellent choice.  Think I’ll make one for me too.”

Roxas turned to hide his blush and took in his surroundings.  He thought he recalled visiting the shop a few times after school with Sora, who was, most notably, an avid caffeine addict.  It was cozy and small, with a fireplace and more couches than tables.  A few of the brighter overhead lights were shut off, so the lighting was warm, dim, and comforting.  There was _no way_ Roxas was going to sit on a couch near the fireplace with Axel.  Too much comfort, too much mood lighting.  He opted instead for a little table near the windows and sat, wiping his sweaty hands on his jeans.  Come on, don’t judge him.  Give the boy a break, he’s nervous!

A minute or two passed and Axel brought over two cups and placed them on the table.  “I finished up quicker than I thought,” he said, taking off his apron and putting it on the back of his chair before sitting down.  He slid Roxas’s phone out of his pants pocket and handed it to our boy.  Roxas almost, so, so nearly took the phone and ran, but when he went to move, his butt was cemented to the chair.  The blonde was suddenly and painfully aware that the two of them were completely alone.  He felt himself shrink in terror at the prospect.

“Hey, so, about last night…” Axel was stirring his coffee and looking seriously concerned.  In this moment he looked so striking that Roxas had to avert his eyes.  “Was it something specific I did that made you uncomfortable or just my general presence?”

Roxas blinked.  He wasn’t prepared for this!  None of his imaginary conversations between the two of them started this way!  “W-what do you mean?”

Axel sighed.  “You practically ran away from me.  I’m not that dense.”

This is it, Roxas.  Now’s the time to face some feelings.  “It’s not you,” our boy said.  He juggled excuses in his mind and hadn’t quite picked one by the time he spoke.  “I guess you make me—I mean, I get nervous.”

“So, you’re just shy?” Axel asked with a hint of skepticism.

Roxas shrugged in response.  “I _am_ sorry for rushing off.”

“You’re fine, I was just a little worried,” he paused, then grinned.  “Wanna make it up to me?”

Roxas’s mouth made a flat line.  “Do I?”

“Of course you do,” he flippantly assured our boy.  “Humor me.  A question for a question.”

“But I don’t have any questions for you,” Roxas said in a small voice.  He wasn’t very convincing and even our boy didn’t believe himself.

“You… don’t,” Axel stretched the words out in disbelief.

Roxas squirmed.  “I guess I might, maybe?”

“Well, I have one,” Axel said with certainty.  “You’re in high school, right?”

“Mmhmm. A senior,” he answered.  “That was easy.”

Axel held up a finger, pausing him.  “Not my question.”

Roxas harrumphed.  “Go on, then.”

“Don’t your parents care that you were out all night last night?”

Roxas sat back in his seat, surprised.  “Oh, well…” our boy paused, looking for the words.  “My dad is kind of used to it.  We used to ‘run away’ to Riku’s house when we were little.  When he came looking for us, we were always there, so he stopped coming after us.” 

When Axel didn’t answer right away, the blonde shrugged. “He’s a real hands-off kind of parent.  Tells us all the time how he’d give us up for adoption, but we’re both nearly adults now, so what’s the point.”  Roxas hurriedly added, “Not that I’m not an adult.  I am an adult.  Legally and everything.”

“What about your mom?” Axel asked, putting the cup to his lips.

“She died a long time ago,” Roxas said.  “I don’t really remember her; Sora and I were really young.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Axel murmured.  “Must have been hard on you guys.”

Roxas, about to shrug but realizing he was doing a lot of shrugging, sipped his tea instead.  “It wasn’t the worst.  With our dad being… well, himself, Sora and I got really close.”

“That must be nice, at least,” said Axel. 

A quiet moment passed and Roxas asked, “Do you have any siblings?”

“I have a half-brother, Reno,” he said. “I haven’t seen him in years though, since he moved out.”

“Half-brother?” Roxas echoed. 

“Yeah, it didn’t work out between my mom and Reno’s dad, then she met my dad and that didn’t work out either,” he laughed.  “What can you do?”

Roxas laughed too, albeit nervously.  “Try again?”

“Actually,” Axel’s finger traced the rim of his coffee cup.  “The best thing she ever did was _stop_ trying.  I’m pretty proud of her—she finally started focusing on herself.  She’s always wanted to have her art in a gallery, and she’s out there making it happen.”  He beamed and Roxas swore the room brightened.

“Where’s her gallery?” our boy asked.

“It’s on the main drag in Enix City,” he answered offhandedly.  “She moved out there with her assistant about a year ago.”

“That sounds lonely for you,” Roxas said, before he could stop himself.  If he didn’t cut it out, they’d be having a full-on heart to heart in a minute.

Axel barked out a laugh.  “No kidding.  The assistant that moved with her?  My ex-fiancé.”

Roxas kept his face smooth and composed but in his brain he was picking shrapnel out of membrane from the bomb that Axel just dropped.  He was _engaged?!_ To whom-TO WHAT?!  Roxas realized his jaw had dropped open.  Our boy knew it was time to talk, but he couldn’t make himself.  What would he even say?

“Did I lose you?” Axel asked, his sexy-hot concerned face returning.

Even though Roxas secretly loved seeing that face again, he knew he had to say something that would make Axel not concerned.  “No,” he answered.  “Just surprised.”

 “What?” Axel’s eyes were playful.  Quick moment of silence for dat concern face.  “Didn’t picture me settling down?”

Roxas cocked his head to the side.  “I don’t know,” he said.  “I hadn’t thought about it.”

Axel laughed lightly.  “It really wasn’t a big deal.  It was more than a year ago and we parted on decently good terms.”

Roxas worked his mouth up and down, but couldn’t summon any words.  Not a _big deal?!?!_ Of course it was!  Our boy wasn’t quite sure why he was so shocked.  It wasn’t that Axel seemed incapable of commitment… maybe it was that he had that sort of tie to some random stranger Roxas didn’t know.

“Hey, I’ll have you know I’m a serial monogamist,” Axel said indignantly.  “I’m in it for the long haul.”

This, for some reason, made Roxas blush, and butterflies erupt in his stomach.  Now, let’s have a little check-in with our boy.  At this point in the conversation, he’s full of excited jitters as well as looming despair and doubt.  His brain was milling over the prospect that Axel got close enough to someone to want to spend forever with them and then, somehow, all of that ending.  If he’d been so serious with whoever that someone was, they must have been insanely cool and interesting, and if it didn’t work out with Coolest Most Interesting Person, then surely our boring old Roxas wouldn’t last very long! 

Roxas realized he had been silent for too long and dragged his eyes to meet Axel’s.  “May I use my question now?” he asked in a small voice.

Axel looked at our boy with amusement and curiosity.  “You may.”

“What happened?”

Axel kept his eyes on Roxas and lazily stroked his chin.  “Our lives started going in different directions,” he said.  “She was set on going to Enix City with my mom.  I nearly went with them, but I’d already started college and my life was here.  We tried long distance for a while but it just… fizzled out.  Honestly, not very cinematic.”

So maybe if Roxas just stayed very, very close to Axel, there would be no chance that whatever was possibly beginning to burn here could fizzle out.  That’s logical, right?  Not that Roxas was even acknowledging any sort of burning.  Nope, there was nothing.  Not even a spark. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Roxas said, even though he wasn’t sure if he was.

Axel snorted.  “Are you?”  He was being coy.  Roxas hated it (i.e. he liked it a lot).

“Yes,” our boy meant to say definitively, but it came out sounding like a question.

“What about you, anyway?  You must have some heartbreak that I’m not sorry about,” Axel said.  He pushed his cup forward and leaned closer to Roxas, lanky arms taking up most of the table as he propped his chin up on his hand.

Oh, this again.  Now Roxas was faced with this situation once again.  Someone he liked and respected asking about his romantic exploits.  Our boy’s face warmed and he decided, for once, that he would be honest about it.  He cast his eyes down and flicked a crumb on the table.  “I really don’t… have anything like that.  I’ve never done anything with anybody.”

Axel took a long sip from his tea.  As he put it down he said, “I know you mentioned that last night.  I guess I just didn’t believe it.”

“Why?” Roxas asked.  He leaned a little closer over the table as well, while also making sure to maintain a safe two-inch parameter of not-Axel space around himself.

“Because,” Axel laughed and gave our boy an unbelieving smile, shaking his head.  “You’re pretty damn lovable, kid.”  He finished his drink and stood, grabbing the cups before heading behind the counter.  This gave Roxas the opportunity to melt and then quickly gather himself.  He took some deep breaths and tried in vain to calm his heated face.

“Ready to go?” Axel asked.  He was standing by the door and twirling keys around his fingers.

Our boy nodded stiffly and made his way out of his seat, every movement jerky.  Axel held the door open for him and he tottered out into the night.

“So,” Axel started, locking the door to the coffee shop.  “My car, Minnie, is—she’s just an old girl.”

They turned the corner and were met with a pretty standard looking black sedan, approximately fifteen years old.

“She doesn’t look that old,” Roxas said, expecting a vintage mustang, probably.

“She may not,” Axel said knowingly.  He unlocked the doors and the two settled in.  “But she’s had a real hard life.  She hit a deer once.  Just kept on driving.”

Roxas nodded, impressed.  “Go on.”

“Three accidents, most of her has been replaced.  Last week my mirror just fell off,” he motioned to the passenger side mirror that was, as he said, just gone.

“It… fell,” Roxas repeated skeptically.  Our boy was at his most comfortable when he was giving someone a hard time, so Roxas felt, in this moment, confident and relaxed.

Axel held up his hands in the Boy Scout salute.  “I swear to the capricious gods of the sky that I was driving and it just gave up and plopped off.  Kamikaze-d.”

“Anything else?” Roxas asked, a playful smile at his lips. 

Axel exhaled loudly and put the key in the ignition.  “Oh, almost forgot.”  He dug around in the center console and pulled out a pair of small, black rimmed, square-ish reading glasses.  “Need ‘em for driving.”

Roxas stared at him hard, trying to keep his expression flat.  Our boy began to overheat and had to rip his eyes away from the simultaneously cutest and hottest thing he’d ever seen in his life: Axel in glasses.

He turned the key and the car rumbled to life and then… just kept rumbling.  “As you can tell, she likes to talk.  AC is broken—punctured radiator—and she can’t go over 60 or she gets some violent shakes.  She won’t be the smoothest ride, but she is the most reliable.”

As they began to drive away, Roxas felt giggles bubble up inside him.  There was something so freeing about being in an old car on a warm night.  He’d just been frankly talking about things he’d never shared with anyone before and he felt light.  More importantly, he felt connected to this enigmatic person next to him.  The laughter slipped through his lips and, to his surprise, Axel laughed too.

Roxas looked over at Axel, the two both still chuckling.  The redhead stopped at a traffic light and looked back at our boy.  “So, you like Minnie?”

Roxas leaned back in the passenger seat and realized it felt like home.  “She’s wonderful.”

Axel leaned over and ruffled Roxas’s hair.  “Yeah?  So I should keep her?”

He gave Axel an affronted look.  “Forever.”

“Even though she’s in and out of the shop so often that the mechanics know her by name?” he asked.  When he was met with the same angry pout, he laughed.  “Guess I’m keeping this death trap forever, then.”

The two chatted idly and Roxas gave him directions to his house.  The ride was so surprisingly relaxing for Roxas that it was over before he knew it.  Axel pulled up into our boy’s neighborhood and slowed.

“This is me,” Roxas said quietly, when they were in front of his house.

Axel threw the car in neutral and smiled at Roxas.  “Sure is.”

Roxas cocked his head to the side and smiled in spite of himself.  “Tonight was… actually surprisingly fun.”

“Your tone is sweet, but your words are hurtful,” Axel said, feigning hurt feelings.  He put a hand on his heart.  “If only I didn’t surprise people with my witty banter and boyish charm.”

“Don’t make me take it back,” Roxas warned.

“You could never!” Axel protested.

Roxas set his chin determinedly.  “Watch me.”

“Alright, alright,” he chuckled.  “I won’t push my luck.”

Roxas couldn’t help the small smile playing at his lips.

“Oh, and I, uh,” Axel tugged at one of his red spikes and nodded to Roxas’s phone.  “My number’s in there, in case… ya’know.”

Roxas blushed and pretended to consider his words with care.  “Thanks, I think.”

Axel smiled and leaned toward our boy.  Roxas squeezed his eyes closed and pushed himself flush against the car seat.  Every muscle in his body tensed as the subtle spice-and-chai smell washed over him.  Then suddenly, a click—fresh air. Roxas peaked through his lashes and saw his car door open.

The urge to flee now overwhelming, Roxas wrestled with the seatbelt and muttered a thank you before noping right out of there.  As Roxas was closing the door to his house, he caught a glimpse of Axel’s car—rather, Minnie—just beginning to pull away.  Our boy’s face flushed and he quickly shut the door.  As he turned, he was met with his father, whose face was unusually and unnecessarily close to his own.

Cloud peered suspiciously at his son.  “You’re flushed.  What’s wrong with you, are you sick?  You better be sick.”

“I’m—” Roxas swallowed thickly.  “—sick.”

Cloud continued to inspect Roxas’s face and after a few seconds, backed off.  “Okay.”  He hesitated a moment, eyes lingering on Roxas’s pink cheeks.  “Might want to take a cold shower… in case you have a fever.”

“O-okay,” Roxas answered.  He sighed, since he’d only just escaped that interaction with his life, and headed upstairs to wait for Sora to exchange date escapade tales.  Not that _he_ had been on a date!  Surely not!  That was just coffee… with basically a stranger… who Roxas found inexplicably attractive… whose number Roxas now had in his phone…

Yeah, totally not a date.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: In my original version of PT, there was an entire date chapter for Demyx and Zexion. As well as being just terrible, the OGPT was also supposed to be a MUCH longer story. Paring it down to a mere 80 pages was a blessing for us all, be assured.

Sora burst through the door to Roxas’s room about an hour later, breathing hard; wild eyes whipping every which way.  He came at our boy so swiftly Roxas was a little afraid that he was possessed.

“TELL. ME. EVERYTHING.”

A petrified Roxas sat crisscross on his bed in hopeless fright, bottom lip quivering ever so slightly.

Sora sat on the bed and grabbed him by the shoulders.  “Roxas, you’re terrified!  So it went well?!”

Roxas nodded weakly and whispered, “Help me.”

“I help those who help themselves!” Sora nearly shouted back.  He splayed himself on the bed and wiggled around.  “SO?” he asked, when he was finally settled.  “What happened?!”

“We just… talked,” our boy said in a small voice.  “We had tea and—Sora it’s terrible he’s ENGAGED.”

“WAIT, HE IS?!” Sora grabbed Roxas by his shirt collar.  “I’LL KILL HIM.”

“Well, he used to be,” Roxas said in his smallest, most inside voice.  “A year ago.”

“Oh,” Sora let go of his brother and dusted off his shirt.  “You need to work on your delivery.”

“But it was to a lady-girl-thing!  Isn’t that a problem?!” Roxas demanded.  “And it was only a year ago!  Don’t you think he’s probably still got, like, baggage or something?”

Sora stroked his chin.  “Not necessarily.  He seems like a pretty baggage-free kind of guy and—you need to trust me on this one—he’s definitely into you.”

“I guess,” said our boy sheepishly.  “He gave me his number.”

“WHAT THAT’S GREAT!”  Sora tackled his brother and shook his arms like noodles.  “Legally, that means he likes you.  It’s official.  It’s the LAW.”

Roxas’s expression turned desperate. “But how do we KNOW?”

“Oh, my god,” Sora smiled lovingly.  “You are so cute right now, I could strange you.”

“No, thank you,” Roxas whimpered.

“You liiiike him tooo,” Sora sang.

Eyes wide as saucers, Roxas clung to Sora.  “Is there a cure?”

“Nope,” Sora mashed his sweet brother’s face with his hands.  “Isn’t it thrilling?”

“I feel like I’m dying.”   Roxas rolled over onto Sora’s legs.  “Sora… there’s one more thing.”

Sora nodded enthusiastically.  “OUT WITH IT.”

“He wears glasses,” our boy said pathetically.  “They’re really cute.”

“Focusing on insignificant details.  You’re in love.  It’s over for you,” said Sora wisely.

Roxas pouted then looked up at his brother curiously.  “Oh, yeah, how was your date?”

Sora swooned, flopping back onto Roxas’s bed.  “It was like a dream,” he sighed.  “I mean that literally, it was like a dream in that it felt like an out-of-body experience and I only remember parts of it.”  He regarded his brother with now shining eyes.  “He told me he’s had these feelings for a long time and… he told me he loves me.”

Roxas wanted to gag or roll his eyes, but he just couldn’t bring himself to.  “Told you so.”

Sora grinned, but there was a glistening at his lashes.  “I knew you’d say that.”

“So…” Roxas shifted his weight around on his brother’s legs.  “Did you say it back?”

“Um, no, I played it cool,” Sora said, then threw his arms out in disbelief, nearly toppling a lamp.  “I flipped out and cried and basically yelled ‘I love you more’ in his face.  The whole restaurant was silent.  A waiter tripped while staring at me.  Shattered plates and food everywhere.”

“I’d expect nothing less from you,” Roxas patted Sora’s knee.

“It would have been impressive if it wasn’t so embarrassing,” he shrugged.  “But Riku assured our father guy that he is definitely still willing to date me, so it all worked out.”

Any rogue color left in Roxas’s face dissipated and he moaned into Sora’s shin.  “What am _I_ going to do about our father guy?  He would hate Axel _so much_.”  It was the first time Roxas had actually said Axel’s name out loud and his heart leapt when it left his lips.

“We could finally kill him,” Sora suggested.  His face was agleam with some real serial killer vibes.

Roxas grimaced.  “Too messy.”

“You could hide it from him.”

“A good short term plan” Roxas said.  “But also a lot of work.”

“You could have a mature, adult conversation about it with hi—”

“SERIOUS SUGGESTIONS ONLY, SORA, GOD.”

Sora shushed his brother in an aggressively reassuring away.  “Let’s burn that bridge when we come to it.”

Roxas struggled for words and eventually just made a few vowel sounds.

“Don’t worry,” Sora said and he nudged the lump they call Roxas off his legs and stood.  “I’ll get started on our plan to get you and your ginger bae together.”

When the lump opened his mouth to protest, Sora slapped his hand over it.

“Fear not, my sweet broseph.  I already have phase one figured out.”  He paused for dramatic effect.  “Start working Fridays.”

Our boy, having had too much excitement for one day and left on the verge of fainting, was able to gargle at Sora and do some shooing hand motions.  Sora mercifully took the cues and left his room.

*          *          *          *            *

The next day, Roxas called Cid to try and get scheduled for Friday again.  Our boy had his own definitely-not-Axel-related monetary motives for wanting to work Fridays, and, truthfully, having live musical entertainment at work wasn’t all that bad.  Even if it did include a guy that made just functioning regularly difficult for our boy.  Roxas had Cloud at the ready to guilt Cid if necessary, but Cid was impressed with our boy’s work that last Friday and was more than amenable to the idea of him working them on a semi-permanent basis.

The next step in Sora’s plan was, of course, to text Axel.  Now, this was the subject of much debate between the two brothers.  Namely, what the heck to say first to initiate the conversation.

_Good day, this is Roxas.  I am working Friday.  Will you be there performing?_

“I like it!” Roxas exclaimed.  “It’s like, business casual.  Straight to the point.”

“Dude, are you serious?  There’s nothing casual about that.  It’s ALL business.  That text basically carries a briefcase and talks about risk management.”  Sora grabbed his brother’s phone and erased his current message and began typing a new one.  “Well then, I like this one.  It’s party casual.”  He gave him a sly smile and showed him the screen.

_Hey hot stuff ;)  It’s ya boy, Foxy Roxy.  I’ll see you on Friday.  You know where (kissy face emoji)_

Roxas’s nostril’s flared.  “Don’t even joke about that.  Give it.”  He swiped at his phone but Sora chortled and held it just out of reach.  Roxas began trying to wrestle it out of Sora’s mitts, and, amidst all the manhandling, a soft bloop sounded, stilling the battle.  Sora and Roxas froze, staring at each other, then at the phone.  Roxas’s worst nightmare was realized in that moment.  The vile text was sent.

“Welp, that’s that,” Sora said, using his rarely seen and even more rarely successful strategy of trying to manipulate Roxas into thinking that everything was okay when everything was NOT okay.  “Sorry buddy.”

“My life is over,” Roxas muttered.

“What’d you say?” Sora asked.  He reached out a hand but Roxas pulled away.

“I said my FUCKING LIFE IS OVER,” Roxas squealed like a stuck hog and tried to suffocate himself with a pillow.

“Oh, my god, you’re so dramatic,” Sora said, raising an eyebrow.  “Worst case scenario, you can say your phone was hacked.”

“No, worst case scenario, he thinks I’m a freak and never speaks to me again!” Roxas cried.

Roxas’s phone lit up, a text from Axel on the screen.

“SEE?!” Sora snatched the phone and pointed at it.  “Dude digs Foxy Roxy.”

“I will rip off your arms and beat you to death with them,” Roxas said darkly. 

Sora read the text blankly, then smirked and handed it to his brother.  Roxas read the text very slowly the first time and then read it twice more.

_Sora, give the phone back to your brother.  Let the adults talk._

Our boy was so relieved.  Just, so relieved.  The relief might have elevated our little Roxas to a state of euphoria, because he began typing his reply with no fear or hesitation.

_I will be flogging him later.  Sorry about that._

“I’ll give you boys some privacy,” Sora stated proudly.  He sprinted out of the room, shouting behind him, “You’re welcome!!”

Roxas’s phone chimed.

_Give him an extra lashing for me._

Our boy giggled and started typing, marveling at how easy it seemed to be now.

 _Will do._ Roxas paused.  Be bold, Roxas.  The mighty forces will come to your aid.  He sat up straighter and typed slowly.   _I am working on Friday._

Roxas held his breath.  What a risky text our sweet boy just sent.  Could that be considered making a move?  No, not even close, but Roxas felt that it could.  He checked his phone.

_We’ll be at the Canteen too.  You want a ride to work?_

Roxas buried his face in his pillow, too embarrassed to even be alone in his room smiling at Axel.  He got all his grins out and composed himself to soberly send a text back.

_Yes please._

Our boy nearly sent a smiley face, but he didn’t want Axel to think he won him over that easy.  His phone pinged again a second later.

_See you then ;)_

***             *             *             *             ***

Sooner than anyone could have thought possible, Friday night was upon all our boys.  I know, I know.  We usually only have one boy.  But today is a big day.  They are all our boys today.  Our main boy, our number one, Roxas, began fretting about the looming nighttime the second he woke up.  He had to suffer through yet another entire day of school, but eventually the time came to take the bus home and prepare for the fateful night.

Boy numero uno sighed loudly.  He was seated on Sora’s bed as Sora himself rifled through his closet, tossing clothes behind him every few seconds.

“Dude, you have _nothing_ to worry about,” Sora said.  He was changing into his fourth outfit option of the day.  “He winkied you.”

“Oh please!” Roxas exclaimed.  “He sent me a winky face like a whole week ago!  Who knows how he’s feeling now!?”

“I think we know what he’s feeling now,” Sora said, tone heavy with implication.

Roxas’s face flushed and he primly said, “We can’t assume anything.”

Sora let out a whiny groan and stomped his foot.  “I have to find the sexiest outfit since sex before Riku gets here but all my clothes are stupid!!”

Roxas snorted.  “When will you learn that everything about you is stupid?”

Sora let out a cry of war, picking up a pile of clothes and hurling them in no particular direction.  “These are the clothes of nuns!”  Sora kicked a shoe across the room.  “STUPID NUN CLOTHES.”

“Wait, wait,” Roxas took a deep breath.  He could feel himself beginning to panic.  “You’re not coming with me and Axel?”

The two could hear the doorbell ring from downstairs.

“What?  Of course not,” Sora gave him an ‘uh, duh-doy’ sort of look.  “The band doesn’t have to be there for another few hours.  Axel’s just going to be your little work pet until they start playing.  I would never get in the way of that.”

Roxas just stared at him, mouth agape until the doorbell rang again.

“OH GOD,” Roxas cried.  “Hide me!!”

Sora rubbed his hands together, wound his arm back, and slapped the shit out of his brother.  “Get yourself together!”

Roxas looked at Sora with an expression nestled somewhere between horrified and betrayed.  “You are so scary sometimes.”

“Quick,” Sora began ushering Roxas out of the door by poking his butt.  “You better get to the door before Ol’ Man Rainy does.”

“Everything is terrible!” Roxas yelled before descending the stairs.  His path intersected with Cloud’s, and the two exchanged suspicious glances.

“Who’s at the door, Roxas?” Cloud asked.  He tried to side-step his son but Roxas followed him, stepping into his way again.

“GET OUT OF THE WAY, IT’S MY ACCOUNTANT,” Roxas shouted, for no apparent reason. 

Cloud’s bewilderment gave Roxas the opening he was looking for and he sprinted to the door.  He opened it just enough for him to shimmy out and shield Axel from Cloud.  And also Cloud from Axel.  The one thing Roxas didn’t account for was how close Axel would be to the door. 

“Hey-OOF!”

He slammed headfirst into Axel’s chest, sending the redhead back a few steps before he caught his balance.  Roxas’s arms instinctively constricted around the Axel’s waist and his hands bunched warm cotton at the redhead’s back.

“Whoa!” Axel grasped our boy’s shoulders and pushed him back on his feet.  “Steady there.”

Roxas hastily released Axel’s shirt and regarded the man with the pride and confidence befitting a much more graceful being.  “Thank you.  Shall we go?”

Roxas noticed he was wearing his glasses again, and his breath caught in his throat.  Damn this weakness!  Axel in glasses: our boy’s kryptonite.  When Roxas ducked into Minnie, he felt an almost palpable electrical charge.  The excitement of being in this well-loved old car again, next to Axel, made our boy smile shyly.  His body hummed with nervous energy; it was downright thrilling.  He was uneasy still, to be spending time with the captivating redhead, but the fact that he’d done this before—sat in this passenger seat, this close to Axel—made him feel brave.  There was a comfort in knowing that he survived this once, he probably could again!  Probably.  He realized he hadn’t said anything and neither had Axel.  Our boy wondered what Axel had been thinking when the redhead spoke abruptly.

“I know I’ll have some extra time before our set starts,” he said, and then cleared his throat. “I brought some homework so I won’t be in your hair.”

The whole week-long buildup began to flow over in our boy’s mind, and he felt the bravery again.  “I want you in my hair, I think,” our boy said.  He looked at his feet.

Axel gazed over at the boy in his passenger seat, nonplussed.  He turned back to the road and hid his smile with a hand.  “Alright, then.”

Once they reached the Canteen, they exited the car, strolled through the doors, and were greeted by the grumpy-looking proprietor of the establishment gnawing on a toothpick.  Roxas greeted Cid, and he grunted in response.  When he saw Axel, he squinted at him and took the toothpick out of his mouth.

“Ah, Axel,” he growled.  “Fraternizing with my best bartender, are ya?”

Axel took a seat at the bar and shrugged.  “I can’t seem to help it.”

Roxas kept his head down as he headed behind the bar, blushing furiously.

Cid looked back and forth between them and scowled.  “I don’t like it.”  He gave them both one more disapproving sneer, and then disappeared into the back without another word.

Axel began pulling books and a notebook out of his small backpack.  He pushed his cute af glasses up on his nose and began to work studiously.

Roxas began his prep-work for his shift, cutting lemon and lime wedges, making sure napkins were ample, polishing glasses.  Every once in a while the two would catch each other’s eye, making our boy blush and look away, which, in turn, made Axel smile softly.

An hour or so had passed and Roxas, just finishing up his work, was scraping lemon wedges off of the cutting board into a bowl on the bar when he finally allowed his gaze to drift to the redhead sitting in front of him.  He caught sight of a folder sporting a familiar college name on the front.  “You go to Radiant Gardens State?”

“Mmhmm,” Axel looked up from his book, pen hanging out of his mouth.

“I, uh,” Roxas scratched the back of his head sheepishly.  “I got in on early admission.”

The pen dropped out of Axel’s mouth.  He slapped both hands on the bar to brace himself.  “Wait, you’re starting at RGS next semester?”

Roxas nodded and blushed, not expecting the redhead to be _that_ excited about his news.  “Thinking about majoring in English.  What’s your major?”

“Music theory,” Axel said.  He grabbed his pen and finished scribbling a note, then closed his books, shoving them back into his bag.  He grinned at our boy eagerly.  “I can’t believe we’ll be at the same college.  We can be study buddies!”

Our boy nodded, but couldn’t make himself speak.  His face was starting to turn a powerful shade of red.  He had to change the subject posthaste.  “Music theory, huh?  That fits you.”

He shrugged.  “Gotta do what you love, right?”

Before Roxas could get embarrassed about his brain turning that last sentence into an innuendo, the door to the bar flew open.

“Hey y’all!”  Sora had kicked open the door and was now stomping up to the bar, slinging an arm over the chair next to Axel.  Riku walked in meekly behind him, waving at Roxas and Axel.

“What’s a guy gotta do to get some fries around here?” Sora demanded. 

“I dunno, ask politely?” our boy said.  As we well know, the boy is passionate about manners. 

“I’m gonna go on stage and do an interpretive dance depicting how I feel about fries!” He ran off, and Riku followed like a disgruntled but also amused single parent.

“He is at an eleven right now,” Axel said, eyes wide.  “Is he off his meds or something?”

“This is average,” Roxas said flatly.  “You can’t know my pain.”  He turned tail and headed to the kitchen. Our boy dumped some pre-made fries on a plate and headed back out to see that someone else had started chatting Axel up.  There was a girl next to him, leaning toward him coquettishly.  Axel laughed at whatever she was saying and shook her hand.  She giggled, then turned and joined another girl at a table by the stage.

Roxas took a deep breath, certainly not feeling any sort of way, especially if that way included any degree of jealousy, because it was definitely way too early for him to be feeling anything like that.  He walked straight up to Axel, placing the fries on the counter.  Not wanting to engage in any sort of talk about any of it, our boy picked up a pint glass and his trusty rag and went to town.

A hand came over the bar and stilled his cleaning.  Roxas looked up to find Axel watching him.  “Roxas, I need to tell you something.”  A bit of pink dusted Axel’s face and he pulled his hand back.

“About your new friend?” our boy asked.  He regretted the words even as they were leaving his lips.  He didn’t want to sound like some crazy jealous bitch but that was exactly what he was sounding like.  Because he was one.  Sometimes the truth hurts.

That was too far.  I’m sorry, Roxas.

“Who?” he asked.  “Oh, that girl?  No, she’s a literal stranger.”  An awkward moment passed and then Axel pressed on.  “I, uh,” the redhead paused.  “I just wanted you to know that I really like spending time with you.”

Roxas looked back down at his glass, focusing on a rather pesky spot and desperately trying to distance himself any way he could from the man in front of him.  “But?” 

“But nothing,” he answered frankly.  “I guess I just wanted you to know that.”

There was a moment of strained silence between them wherein Roxas was wrestling with his vocal chords, willing them to produce some magical string of words that would encourage Axel to say more sweet things.  Apparently his panicked silence was encouragement enough, because Axel tried again.  “As in, I like spending time with you more than most other people.  Do you know what I mean?”

“I… think so?” Roxas said.  Spoiler alert: he did not know what he meant.

“Axel!” Riku shouted from the table nearest the stage.  “Come settle this bet!”

Axel looked at Roxas for a slow second.  “Rain check on this conversation?”

Perplexed, Roxas just nodded.  Was this a special conversation that needed a raincheck?  Roxas didn’t understand.  He suspected that he had sorely missed some subtext and he wasn’t sure it was going to become regular text as immediately as he needed it to.

As the bar filled, Axel sent meaningful looks at Roxas periodically that our boy just couldn’t figure out.  In addition to Axel’s attention, he also had Tifa’s.  She had shown up with the rest of the band and, not having brought her ukulele, was parked right in front of the register at the bar.  As the night wore on, Tifa ordered drink after drink and was, how you say, feeling no pain by the time Fornaxis was up.  They played well and Axel, as always, was intoxicating.  Roxas kept having to remind himself to breathe during their songs.  Our boy was aware that Tifa had been speaking to him for quite some time as the band played, but he hadn’t heard a word of any of it.  The band eventually wrapped up and Axel began to make his way toward Roxas. 

“…And THAT’S why I never eat seafood,” Tifa said, shuddering. 

“That’s fascinating,” Roxas said, but he did not mean it.  Really he was very, very far away, doing business in Nervous City, watching Axel weave through people to get to the bar.  Nearly there, he was stopped by the girl from earlier that already flirted the crap out of him.  Come on, girl!  Give someone else a chance.  Like maybe our someone.

Tifa chugged the rest of her drink and knocked it down on the bar with a clatter.  “Top me off, cutie.”

Roxas ignored her and pretended to busy himself with pulling empty bottles and glasses off the bar and stepped closer to Axel and his fan, so as to eavesdrop.  Don’t look at me that way.  He’s allowed to drop some eaves once in a while.

“You guys are like, really good,” he heard the girl say.  She had a pretty face and pretty, auburn hair that she tucked behind her ear.

Axel laughed, sounding natural, relaxed, and utterly charming.  Roxas frowned, knowing the power that charm could have over a person.  It was too much power for one man.  He must be stopped.

“That’s kind of you,” Axel said, the picture of modesty.  “But I don’t believe you.”

“No, you are,” she insisted.  She placed her hand delicately on Axel’s forearm.  “You know, I can be very inspiring.  Like, I could be your first groupie.”

Roxas coughed and sputtered, then tried to pass it off as clearing his throat.  Neither of them looked at him, though (no shocker there, it was a loud, crowded bar).  It occurred to our boy that maybe he didn’t just cough out of surprise, maybe he thought he could get a certain someone’s attention, possibly breaking the groupie sex spell that girl was casting.

Axel chuckled humorlessly.  “That’s flattering, but I think we’re plenty inspired sans groupies.”

Roxas braced himself for drink-throwing or something of the sort, but she just smiled at him.  “Well, I’m still a big fan,” she said, and then disappeared into the crowd.

Roxas sighed.  He was surprised and a little confused.  What was it about Axel that was so utterly disarming?  If anyone else had had that exchange there definitely would have been some drama.  Also, that girl was pretty cute and seemed to be relatively not crazy, plus, didn’t guys in bands rising to fame _want_ groupies?  Were they some sort of classy rock band?  Do those exist?!

“Roxy,” the voice he knew too well sang.

Our boy turned innocently, as if he wasn’t just dropping those dank eaves.  “Not my name,” he echoed Axel’s sing-songy tone.

Axel was leaning on the bar, a downright sultry Cheshire cat grin on his face.  Like imagine if there were a live-action Alice in Wonderland porn and they needed a human embodiment of a sexy Cheshire cat.  That’s Axel.  For sure this porn has been made, but imagine the shame the person in charge of casting must now feel, knowing that _Axel_ was the perfect Cheshire cat, not whatever scrub they got.

“The band’s getting together at the apartment in a few.  Wanna come?” he asked.

Roxas nodded and smiled.  He wasn’t sure if it was working, but he was trying to tap into whatever channel Axel got his charm from.  Like the charm spring?  Like the fountain of youth but for charm.  Goku’s spirit bomb of charm.  That’s it.

Axel reached over and chucked our boy under the chin, and Goku’s Spirit Fountain of Charm hit Roxas and shattered his world.

“I just have to pack up our equipment real quick, and then we’ll get outta here, okay?”  Axel grinned at him and our boy’s heart skipped a beat.

Roxas’s face reddened as Axel walked away.  He watched as he went almost wistfully, as if it all was too good to be true.

Tifa caught our boy watching him and she scoffed, turning up her nose, though the action was cheapened by the fact that she swayed in her chair.  “You’re into Axel?”

His bright blush paled in a matter of seconds and he looked at her with terror in his eyes.  “What?  Who?  I don’t even know who that is.  That’s a car part, right?  What are we talking about?”

She blinked at him slowly.  “I wouldn’t even go there,” she said as she inspected the ice cubes in her empty glass.  “He almost married my best friend, but luckily she dodged that bullet.”

Roxas’s ears perked up.  He wasn’t sure she was trustworthy, a good person, or even cognizant of what she was saying, but she surely had _inside scoop_.  It wouldn’t hurt to get some juicy deets, would it?  Our boy tried to sound casual, asking, “What happened with that anyway?”

“But first…” she pushed her empty glass toward him.  “Top. Me. Off.”

Roxas stared at the glass as annoyance plucked at his nerves.  He exhaled slowly and made her a new drink.  He muttered a sarcastic ‘please’ under his breath before he gave the glass back to her, filled.

“To you.”  She tipped the drink toward him and drank deeply. 

“Uh-huh,” Roxas tapped his finger on the bar.  This sweet, sweet gossip couldn’t even be worth this trouble, could it?  It must be.  It must!  “So?” he prompted.

“I heard he cheated on her,” she said, a smug, yet sloppy look on her face.

And that’s what happens when you go looking for that juicy goss fruit.  You hear something you didn’t want to hear, and those were the words for our boy.  For some reason, a reason he couldn’t quite grasp yet, this was his fear when getting close to Axel.  Axel was good looking, charismatic.  Roxas knew if they were ever going to be something, he would have competition.  His heart sank.

Tifa shook her glass at him, ice cubes clanging around noisily.  It was empty again.

Roxas frowned at her.  He’d had about enough of this rude lady being rude and saying rude things about Axel, who’d never been rude and only been sweet and friendly toward him.

“It’s last call,” Roxas said to Tifa sternly.  His patience was just about worn thin, and he wasn’t interested in babysitting this woman-shaped train wreck any longer.  Especially if she was going to trash talk our boy’s boy. 

She looked up at him and smiled, her eyelids drooping with drink.  “One more for you and me,” she slurred.  Roxas hadn’t realized how trashed she’d gotten.  She tried to push herself up on the bar, and her hand slipped, knocking over several glasses and nearly toppling her over.

Roxas groaned and threw a rag on the counter.  He walked around the outside of the bar and caught Tifa just as she was slipping out of her stool. 

She fluttered her eyelashes at him and hummed.   “My hero.”  She put her arms around his neck and leaned in.  Roxas could smell her the vodka on her breath as she panted in his face.  He tried to push her away gently by the hips, but she clung to him.

“Let’s just—” Roxas sat her down on the stool again and began prying her hands off of his neck.  “—try to get you home in one piece.”

She mumbled something incoherent at him in response.  Roxas reached around her to grab some napkins- quick, preemptive thinking on his part- and she latched onto the collar of our boy’s shirt.  She shoved her face into him, nuzzling at his chest.  She hummed and pulled him against her.  Before he could pull away, her tongue flicked out and dragged up his neck, nipping and nibbling up to his ear lobe.

Roxas froze, the color running out of his face.

“Hey,” Sora ran up behind them, looking alarmed.  “Everything okay?”

Roxas swallowed, trying to clear the lump in his throat.  “Can you get someone to take her home?”

Sora nodded and jogged off, shouting for Riku.

Roxas steadied Tifa on the bar and, not knowing what else to do, headed for the door.  He touched the handle and his chest suddenly ached.  He looked up and around, finding the face he was scanning for looking right back at him.  The expression he saw on the redhead’s face was very odd.  It seemed guarded and schooled, but underneath was… anger.

It was all too much.  Roxas ran out the door, trying to gulp down air.  His breath kept coming short and he knew he just needed to get somewhere he felt safe and comfortable.  He started walking and when he stopped, he found himself at the bus stop.  The stark difference between his ride to work and the present happenings stung in his head and throbbed in his heart.  The last thing he was lucidly aware of was the tears streaming down his cheeks as he closed his bedroom door behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, things with our boys have pretty adorable, huh? Be a shame if someone… ruined it... 
> 
> Fun Fact: Namine was originally supposed to be Roxas’s work wife at the Canteen, but eventually I wrote her out.

A knock on the door woke Roxas the next morning.  He had a sinking, weighty feeling in the pit of his stomach as the events of the night before came to his mind.  The knocks sounded again, but this time they were accompanied by Sora’s worried voice

“Rox, you up?”

“Yeah,” our boy croaked back. 

Sora entered the room and sat down on Roxas’s bed before our boy could protest.  “You left before Cid could cash you out,” he said, handing him his tips in a rubber band.  “Are you doing okay?”

Roxas pulled his brother in for a quick, tight hug.  “I don’t know.  I guess.”

Sora gave him a squeeze and sat back on the bed.

“Was Cid mad?” our boy asked.  He stared at his hands in his lap.  “I walked out on my shift.”

“I think he was a little, but only because it meant he had to do some actual work,” Sora chuckled.  “You still have a job, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“At least there’s that,” Roxas muttered.  A flash of Axel’s weird upset expression appeared in his mind.  “What about Axel?”

“Oh,” Sora squinted in thought.  “I’m not sure.  He left a little after you did.  I guess he was kinda quiet and off.”

“I saw his face before I left,” Roxas said softly.  “He looked like he was trying to hide it, but I think he was mad at me.” 

“Why would he be?” Sora asked.  “What even happened?”

“I don’t know!” Roxas said exasperatedly.  “All of this is so stupid.  Sora, I’m… I’m having these feelings.”

“Me too.  Like—” Sora stroked his chin.  “—is any of this real, or not?”

Roxas rolled his eyes.  “Not those kinds of feelings.  The kind… about Axel…”

“Oh, you’re admitting it now,” Sora said, nodding.  “Go on.”

Roxas groaned.  “How did these feelings even start?!  Who can I give them to?  I don’t want them anymore.  I would literally trade my foot to no longer have these feelings.”

“We could probably get a decent price for that foot on the black market,” said Sora.  “Wait, which foot?”

Roxas laid his head back on his pillow and grunted.  “Left.”

“Eh,” Sora made a sideways face.  “Your left foot isn’t that great.”

Roxas regarded his brother flatly.  “Thanks.” 

He groaned, stood up, and began pacing.  Then, abruptly, rage ignited in our boy.  “I just don’t understand.  Why is that asshole mad?  Some drunk girl just stole my first intimate moment!  _I_ should be mad.  I _am_ mad!”

Sora frowned thoughtfully.  “Maybe he didn’t understand what happened.  Think about it from his perspective.  All he saw was you two being close, some tongue, and then you left.”

Roxas stood very still and focused hard on Sora’s words.

Sora continued, “You should talk to him about it.  Seems like if he got this worked up about it, he likes you a lot.  Maybe he was jealous.”

Sora barely got the words out before Roxas was bolting out the door to the sounds of his brother’s rallying cries.

*          *          *          *          *

Roxas stepped off the bus at the stop nearest to Axel’s apartment.  He started walking, then jogging, knowing if he didn’t get there soon his resolve would dissipate.  He saw the sign for his street and ran as fast as his little baby legs could take him.

He took the three steps up to Axel’s apartment door in one leap.  He knocked, not letting himself pause now, surely if he actually thought about what he was doing, he’d abandon this terrible plan.

He heard some rustling from inside and Axel opened the door.  He raised an eyebrow at our boy, taking in the sheen of sweat on his face and the look of—mmm let’s say… half anger and half mania in his eyes.  “Can I help you?”

Roxas let out a frustrated scoff.  “Let me be _perfectly clear._ I don’t think I owe you any sort of explanation.  I have done _nothing_ wrong and I—I don’t even know why I’m here!”

Axel’s hard expression remained.  “Then leave.”

“Maybe I will!” our boy yelled, louder than he meant to.  Contrary to his words, he just stood in the doorway, breathing heavily.  Axel regarded him levelly and leaned against the door frame, apparently getting comfortable, like they were going to be there a while.

“I don’t understand why you’re upset,” Roxas spat breathlessly.  “It’s not like anything happened at all, and in any case, you and I, we’re not a thing.  You have no right or—or claim—”

Axel took a swift step toward our boy and pulled him in by the back of the neck for a desperate kiss.  Roxas froze, his brain now completely blank.  Axel’s lips softened and Roxas felt his lips move instinctively with the redhead’s.  Axel pulled away just slightly to check Roxas’s expression; our boy’s jaw was set stubbornly and his eyebrows were pulled together.  He grabbed the collar of Axel’s shirt roughly and crushed their lips together again.  Axel was the one to pull away again, just leaning in to kiss Roxas’s forehead.  His hand moved from Roxas’s neck to his cheeks, cupping his face tenderly.

“I know I have no right,” he said gently.  “I’m sorry.  It drove me crazy to see her all over you like that.”

Roxas’s brain and guts were mush, but he gathered them enough to roll his eyes.  “You’re ridiculous.  You know we weren’t, like, together or anything.  She basically assaulted me.  Actually—” He looked down and away from Axel.  “—I was pretty upset about it.  I could have really used someone to lean on.” 

Axel frowned, looking absolutely devastated.  “I’m really sorry, Roxas.  I let my stupid jealousy get in the way.  Do you want to come in?  Talk about it?”

Roxas hugged Axel around the middle and let comfort and contentedness fill his bones.  “Yeah,” he said into Axel’s shirt.  “I’d like that.”

When they opened the door, Roxas noticed that Axel had not been alone.  Demyx and Zexion lay sprawled on the couch with popcorn and beers watching a movie.  They both waved when Axel shut the door behind them.

“Oh,” Axel laughed nervously.  “We didn’t end up getting together last night so we were hanging today.  Riku’s on his way to pick up Sora now.”

“You mean I could have just waited and not practically run all the way here,” said Roxas, eye twitching slightly.

“It’s more meaningful this way,” Axel grinned.  “I certainly appreciate the gesture.”  He placed his hand at the small of Roxas’s back and kissed his temple.

Roxas frowned.  He wasn’t a fan of this new, playfully mocking side of Axel.  It was obnoxious in a way he hadn’t experienced before.

Sora and Riku returned a few minutes later.  Sora grinned when he saw Roxas and Axel next to one another on the couch, turned to each other and talking animatedly.  Sora winked at his brother and mouthed ‘it was all part of the plan’.  Roxas tried to glower at him, but he just couldn’t summon enough negativity.  He was satisfied with the way this whole event turned out, and he couldn’t bring himself to be anything but at ease.

The six boys watched, talked, and laughed and our specific boy realized he felt comfortable in this space now.  Next to Axel, he felt at home.

“So Roxas,” Demyx said.  “How do you feel about Axel bribing you to love him?”

“Hm?” Our boy looked from Demyx to Axel.  “You did?”

Axel shot Demyx a warning glare.  “Of course I didn’t.  I just… gave you a generous tip,” he said defensively.  “You were providing excellent service!”

“That sounds like a bribe to me,” Demyx said seriously.  “What did he do to get you here?  Are you being blackmailed?  Blink if you’re being blackmailed.”

Roxas held his eyes wide open and stared the blonde down.

Demyx blew air at his face and Axel slapped him a couple times, saying, “Okay, you fool, that’s enough.”

“You just don’t want to admit that it’s _shameful,”_ Demyx burst out in a fit of giggles when Axel started smacking him harder.

“That wouldn’t even make it on the top ten of the most shameful things _you’ve_ done in a restaurant,” Axel said, landing one more painful sounding smack.

Demyx rubbed his arm.  “What, are you referring to the guacamole incid—”

“OF COURSE I’M REFERRING TO THE GUACAMOLE INCIDENT.”

The hooligans continued to bicker humorously, basically it was a conversation crafted of the purest comedic gold.  If only we’d been paying attention.

“Roxas.”

Roxas looked up from basically SNL right in front of him to see Zexion lowering himself onto the couch next to him.  “What’s up?” our boy asked, a little afraid.  He hadn’t had many interactions with Zexion, but in the little he’d had, he seemed to be a quiet, maybe scary, kind of guy.

“I wanted to apologize for my sister last night,” he said, fixing his eyes on Roxas’s.  “She is incorrigible when she drinks.”

“It’s no problem, really,” Roxas said, meaning what he said.  He still felt the echo of the feeling from last night, but since he’d reconciled with Axel, it didn’t seem so bad anymore.

“I’ve made sure that she won’t be a problem for you anymore,” Zexion said, in a business-like tone.  “We all like you more than her, anyway.”

“Oh.” Roxas was taken aback by his kind words.  “You don’t have to say that.”

“I don’t say anything I don’t mean,” he said, sounding almost like he was scolding our boy, but not quite.

“Thank you,” Roxas said, feeling downright warm and fuzzy inside.

“Zexy!  Are you trying to convert Roxas to scientology?!” Demyx demanded, just noticing the two had been talking.

“Demyx, for the last time, scientology is not the worship of science,” Zexion said, but it sounded more like a groan formed into words.

“Why you so smart, Zex-o?” Demyx twirled a piece of hair from the bottom half of his mullet around his finger flirtatiously.

This seemed to sicken Zexion because his face contorted and he sighed resignedly.  “Remember that one birthday you got a Nintedo 64 and were so excited?  It’s significant because it was the same year that I received a dictionary.”

Demyx was already off chatting up Axel and didn’t hear Zexion’s reply.

“Childhood friends?” Roxas guessed.

Zexion looked at Demyx, who was seemingly pretending to be a squirrel, before saying, “Unfortunately.”

“Guys, we should watch a movie!” Sora piped up.  “You know, that new one with the shark that eats the world!”

Roxas and Sora had talked at great length about their eagerness to see The Shark That Ate the World, but now, Roxas played it cool.  He wanted to see what these mature new friends of his thought of potentially the most entertaining movie of all time.  Because if they didn’t like it, he’d have to either leave with his brother and never return or kill them all in cold blood.  There were no other options.

There was a pause and Roxas fidgeted, readying his deadly fists, then a cacophonous explosion of cheers and enthusiastic agreements.  They procured the movie any way they could—not saying they illegally downloaded it but I’m also not not saying that.

They all settled in, huddling close in the glow of the television.  Roxas noticed he and Axel had inched closer to each other as the evening wore on and their sides were now touching.  Axel’s arm, resting over the back of the couch, was subtly inviting to our boy.  And so he accepted the invitation, nestling into the nook between Axel’s arm and body.  Axel smiled down at him and hugged him closer. 

***             *             *             *             ***

As the credits rolled on the television, Roxas gazed around the room lazily, realizing that everyone was asleep.  Sora was draped over Riku’s torso and drooling on his shirt.  Demyx and Zexion were also asleep, heads propped on one another.  Our boy felt the couch shift, and Axel was standing.  He held out his hand for Roxas to take, and our boy flashed back to looking up at Axel for the first time on the bus, seeing him with his hand outstretched toward him just as he did now.  That lonely day felt like a hundred years ago.

He took the hand and followed Axel down the hall to the last room on the left and they entered, shutting the door behind them noiselessly. 

They two stood, unmoving in this private space, watching each other.  The silence built and mounted, becoming nearly suffocating.  Roxas was grateful when Axel began walking to the bed, his rustling movements bringing life back into the room.  He followed and sat, feeling the softness of the grey plaid comforter under his fingers.  As he breathed in, the smell of Axel plumed around him in a dizzying fog.

“So,” Axel whispered and they both laughed softly.

“Yeah,” Roxas whispered back, half in agreement and half as a question.

“I wanted to apologize again for last night,” Axel said lowly.

“It’s not your fault,” Roxas said automatically.  He took a deep breath.  “Can I tell you why it was such a big deal to me?”

Axel shifted, sitting sideways and facing Roxas fully.  “Please.”

Roxas set his jaw determinedly.  “I feel like we’ve talked about this ad nauseam, but I need to tell you one more time—clearly, no bullshit.”

Axel gripped one of his hands and squeezed comfortingly.

Our boy smiled and continued.  “That was my first kiss, earlier today.  Last night, it was—I feel like she stole something from me.  Something I’d been holding onto for almost eighteen years.  And in a second she just… took it.  I didn’t realize until after we kissed that it wasn’t just that it was her, it was that it wasn’t you.”

Axel tentatively pulled him in for a hug, Roxas’s head tucked under the redhead’s chin.  “I will never do anything to make you feel that way.  I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”  He pulled away and lifted our boy’s chin.  “Believe me, I don’t make the same mistake twice.”

Roxas’s lip trembled, and he breathed slowly, trying to ignore his heart swelling and the great relief he felt. 

A breathless moment grew between them as they gazed into one another’s eyes.  Axel searched Roxas’s expression and he bit his lip.  “You know, maybe we should get off the bed…”  He trailed off as our boy closed the gap between them, catching Axel’s lips, enjoying the electric hum that buzzed everywhere they touched.  He was lost in the moment, only half aware that they had laid back on the bed and their kisses were becoming feverish.  It took Axel pulling away, running a hand sweetly through Roxas’s hair to break the haze.  His eyes fluttered open, and suddenly the closeness and intimacy was too much. 

He scrambled up out of the bed and sent a panicked look back at Axel before tearing out the door.  The scene in the living room hadn’t changed much and Roxas did some quick thinking.  It was too late to take the bus, and he didn’t want to explain what was happening to Riku, so he hurried to where Demyx was sleeping.  Our boy’s fight or flight had kicked in, but it had not kicked in quite correctly and had instead merged into a fight AND flight.  He was standing over Demyx’s sleeping form, and, out of nowhere, he punched Demyx in the gut.

Demyx flew up with a gurgling squeal, staring at Roxas in abject terror.  “OW,” was all he said.

“Drive me home, please, _now,_ ” Roxas hissed. 

Demyx made some ‘okay, okay, calm down’ hand motions and shuffled around for keys.  Roxas, meanwhile, started jabbing Sora in the cheek.  “Dude, we’re leaving.”

Sora moaned sleepily and snuggled harder into Riku’s torso.

Demyx held up the keys and Roxas ushered him over, whispering, “He won’t wake up.  Grab his feet.”

The man dithered, then realized he had nothing better to do, and took Sora’s ankles.  Roxas held his brother under his arms, and they wobbled their way out the apartment.

It was then that Roxas noticed they were heading for a familiar car.  “Wait, we’re taking Minnie?”

“Oh, yeah,” Demyx answered.  “I don’t have a car.”

The two dropped Sora on the ground unceremoniously to unlock the car and open the doors.  “Should we put him in the trunk?” Demyx asked eagerly.

“No, what is wrong with you?” Our Roxas peered at him, suspecting that he’d punched the wrong getaway driver.

“Sorry, I got excited,” he said.  He helped our boy manhandle the brunette again.  Roxas was awash with guilt shoving his brother in the backseat of his love interest’s car, said love interest nowhere to be seen.  (If love interest _were_ involved, he’d be more than happy to shove a body into the car surreptitiously.)

Demyx started the car and Roxas paused at the door handle, sending a forlorn look at the apartment.  He couldn’t turn back now, so he sighed, got in, and they were off.

“I’m going to say some things,” Roxas said.  “Because if I don’t, I will implode.”

“Okay,” Demyx said simply.

“This is all in confidence,” said Roxas, more of a threat than a statement.  His hard demeanor crumbled, and he dropped his head in his hands.  “I don’t know why I keep doing this.  I run away from the things that I want.  Why do I keep running?”  He was almost startled by the hot tear that ran down his cheek.  “I need to keep running because I am freaking out.  And now I’m making you help me run away, and we’re in Axel’s car which makes me feel _worse_.”

“If it helps any, I think I know _why_ you’re running,” Demyx said in a small voice.  Roxas looked up at him, which he took as encouragement and rolled on.  “I think you like him a lot, more than you want to, and that scares you.  When you’re scared, you run.”

Our boy hesitated.  Sora, in the backseat, lay wide-eyed and attentive, hanging on to every word.  He held his breath and hoped his brother would be accepting of Demyx’s very accurate assessment of him.

Roxas finally spoke.  “I’ve never done any of this before.”

“You’re afraid of getting hurt,” Demyx inferred. 

“I just don’t think I could have picked a _more_ experienced person.  I mean, he’s been engaged!”

“I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing, him being experienced.  It means he can help you through this stuff, and he’ll be really understanding because he’s been there,” he said.  “Axel is patient.  He knew Aerith— his ex-fiancée—was unhappy and he just supported her, waiting for her to figure it all out for herself.” Demyx gave our boy a lopsided grin.  “I really think your heart is in good hands.”

And just like that, any conflicted feelings in Roxas melted away, and he was left with just three: guilt, shame, and hope.  He didn’t know why he couldn’t step back and objectively look at all of this Axel nonsense.  He’d always been able to be logical; been able to look at situations critically, but now that he was in it himself?  Feelings, thoughts, interactions all became muddled together.  Demyx’s words rang in him, ceaselessly reverberating.  Roxas’s head spun as the words actually sank in and he considered the possibility that he could be in a happy, romantic relationship with Axel.  That is, if the redhead ever forgave our boy for running out on him.

The rest of the ride, Roxas was oscillating between hopeful elation and depressing guilt.  When they arrived at the Clavella abode, Demyx turned to our boy.

“Need some help getting that slug out of the backseat?” he asked.

Sora quickly shut his eyes, feigning sleep.

“Nah, I’ve got him,” Roxas smiled at him timidly.  “Thank you.”

Demyx smirked and flapped a hand.  “No thanks needed.  I getcha, sometimes you just need to punch some innocent bystander really, really hard.”

Roxas laughed.  “Next time, I’ll hit you harder.  Maybe in the face.”

“Oof, can’t wait.” The sandy blonde gave our boy a parting grin.  Roxas returned the gesture, and gathered the slug in question from the backseat.  Sora leaned heavily on his brother, but stayed standing.  They made their way to the house and their separate bedrooms.

As Roxas settled into bed, he forced himself to check his phone before going to sleep.  Two, Three… four texts from Axel.  Our boy couldn’t bear reading them just now, but sent a quick message to him before facing the phone upside down on his nightstand and clicking off his bedside lamp.

A rogue tear slipped down his cheek as he lay in bed.  The text he sent glowed in his mind’s eye as a huge, shining neon sign.

_I’m sorry._


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's all so mooodyyy omg Roxas get it togetherrrr
> 
> Fun Fact: In my first version of PT, Axel's car, Minnie, was named Rhonda. Who even knows why.

A few days past our boy by as he tried to focus on himself and his responsibilities.  He went to work and studied for his exams, which were steadily approaching.  Only a few days of high school left for our very big, very old boy. 

Roxas felt better this particular morning, in spite of himself.  He picked up his phone and saw another text from Axel.  He went back and reviewed their last few messages.

 _Axel:      Are you alive?_  
               _Did someone drive you home?_  
_Did DEMYX drive you home???_  
_Did I overstep my bounds?_

_Roxas:  I’m sorry._

_Axel:    What are you sorry for?_

_Roxas:  I dunno. Like everything I guess._

_Axel:     Are we okay?_

_Roxas:  I want to be. You’re okay.  I’m a mess._

_Axel:     Fortunately for you, I like messes :)_

When Roxas received that last one, he had blushed so violently he nearly went blind and died.  You know, from the rush of blood to his face or something.  Being so near the sweet embrace of death, he couldn’t summon the strength to respond.  Now, he continued reading the messages.

_Axel:    Do you want to hang out today?_

This message was from yesterday.  Our boy bit his lip when he got it.  And though he dreadfully missed Axel, he didn’t feel emotionally ready, and, to be honest, he had a lot of studying to get done for his quickly approaching exams.

_Roxas:  I have to get some studying done.  Tomorrow?_

_Axel:    Of course._

Roxas moved onto the newest unread message eagerly.

_Axel:   Want to go for a walk?_

Roxas smiled and tippity typed an affirmative answer.  There was a lot to smile about.  First of all, he _did_ want to go for a walk.   Secondly, he’d just about gotten to a place in his studies where he felt pretty confident that he was prepared.  Now he felt he could focus again on things with Axel.  Not to mention, graduation was just a few days away, and the weather was getting warmer.  There was a humming, hanging energy in the air, and so Roxas was feeding off of it.  He was hoping he could feel that elusive, electric bravery he had felt before with Axel.

When he got the message from Axel saying he was on his way, our boy headed downstairs to wait.  He couldn’t take any more chances that His Raininess might answer the door one of these times.  Our boy shuddered to think of such a bloody scenario.  He was getting some quick studying done when the anticipated knocking occurred.

He whipped his head around, checking for any—ahem—overcast witnesses.  The downstairs was clear so he zipped out the door.  Seeing Axel for the first time in a few days felt like a relieved sigh.  As if Roxas had been only taking in shallow breaths since he’d seen him last and simply gotten used to it.  Now our boy’s lungs filled entirely with crisp, satisfying air.  He wasn’t sure how it’d happened, that Axel had inexplicably been linked to his ability to unwind.  He quelled his urge to tackle Axel to the ground and settled for a near-casual hug.  They lingered a moment in each other’s arms, then separated.

“Hey,” Axel greeted him, smiling down at our boy warmly. 

Roxas’s stomach flip-flopped and he smiled back bashfully.  “How have you been?”

The two ambled around Roxas’s neighborhood and chatted, catching one another up on their latest happenings.  Every once in a while, their fingers would brush, and Axel would give Roxas’s hand a quick squeeze before releasing it.  Our boy appreciated the contact and also the subtlety.  The conversations were broken up by a few comfortable, quiet pauses.  It was during one such silent stretch that Roxas decided to broach the subject of his looming graduation.  They strolled up a side street on the warm May afternoon.  Our boy was working up a casual way to bring it up in his brain when Axel sighed.

“Go on, just say it.”

“Hm?” Roxas looked up at him.

“You’re doing that thing where you don’t want to talk about something,” Axel said.

“I don’t have a… thing,” Roxas mumbled.

“You definitely do,” Axel chuckled.  “What is it?”

“Well, in this very specific case, I might have a thing,” Roxas surrendered.  “Like maybe this thing on Saturday?”

“And?” Axel encouraged.

“And… it’s just this stupid graduation,” he looked away, too nervous to face the redhead.  “ _My_ stupid graduation.”

“I’ll be there,” Axel said, without ceremony.

“Oh, god, no!” Roxas shrieked.  In this moment, he looked exactly like the little blonde girl that dies first in every horror movie.  This is the moment right before she gets ripped to shreds by a horrifying demon.

“What?” Axel screwed up his face.  “Why?”

“I don’t want you to come!  I don’t want anyone to come!”  Roxas began panicking.  “I’ll—I’ll destroy the school if you come!”

“Well, too bad, guess the school is doomed,” Axel said, lifting his chin stubbornly.  “I wanna be there for you.”

Roxas put a hand on Axel’s forearm to stop him.  “Please.  I’m just not ready.”

“For me to be there for you?” He raised one of his teeny tiny eyebrows.

“To die.  Because my father will horsewhip me, then you, then Sora, and then me again.  Then, presumably himself,” Roxas stared hard into Axel’s eyes.  “I promise I will introduce you in a few weeks.  Just let me graduate.  I’m thinking he might not murder so hard if I’m out of high school.”

“Why do you think he’ll dislike me so thoroughly?” Axel asked, averting his eyes.  He turned to start walking, and Roxas caught him by the crook of his arm to stop him again. 

“You don’t know Cloud.  I promise it isn’t you at all,” Roxas sat down on the curb of the street and pulled Axel down by the hand to sit next to him.  “Cloud has passed on very little wisdom or advice or… really any words at all.  Sometimes he’ll say something like, ‘instead of having children, you could just die inside instead’ or ‘if you do anything for me in this life, I hope it’s learning how to plausibly get away with murder’.  He’s like a morbid, random hallmark card.  The one thing that he has told me on multiple occasions—like at every family holiday—is that no one will ever been good enough for me in his eyes, and that I dare not even bring someone home until I am no longer under his roof.”  He looked up at Axel, wincing.

“That’s…” Axel scratched his chin.  “…kind of sweet.  Shows how much he cares, right?”

“I think it’s less that and more that he doesn’t want to be responsible for the crimes he would commit were I to bring someone home.”

Axel shrugged.  “Even still.”

“Yeah, well, he also said never to date anyone who’s waist is smaller than mine because it’s a sign of weakness,” Roxas said, eyeing Axel’s midsection.

Axel too looked down at his lanky, slight frame and frowned.  “I’m not sure this situation—” he motioned to his nearly-womanly small waist, “—can be fixed.”

“No, it’s okay,” Roxas blushed and snaked his hands around said tiny, TINY waist.  “I don’t want you to change anything.  Especially on account of my father.”

Finally, it was Axel’s turn to blush.  But in the most manly way possible.  He leaned into Roxas’s touch and sighed.  “Okay.  You win.”

Roxas’s heart leapt.  No one would be flayed alive at his graduation!  No one’s blood would be on his or his family’s hands!  It’s always a good day when you can say that.

“But—” Axel pulled away and looked at Roxas squarely.  “—I’ll have you know dads _love_ me.  I’m a suave and flattery goddamn gentleman.”

“I’m sure you are,” Roxas laughed and stood, dusting off his pants.  When he looked up Axel was already standing by his side again.

“Question, though,” Axel said as they started up walking again.  “Isn’t your dad pretty much obsessed with Riku?”

Roxas belligerently and exaggeratedly rolled his eyes.  “Pretty much.  Sora’s allowed to bring someone home because Cloud says you can’t get any lower than rock bottom.”

Axel howled with laughter.  “I think Cloud and I would get along.”

Roxas smiled, but held a fraction of terror behind his eyes.  “I hope for all our sakes that that’s true.”

They returned to the house after their walk and stalled at the front door.

“Do… you want to come in?” Roxas asked, sounding like he didn’t want to be asking at all and hoping Axel did not, in fact, want to come in.

“I would love to,” Axel said affably.  He added, “I can’t though.  I was just stopping by for a bit.  Got a shift at Kupo in a few.”

Roxas tried not to sound relieved when he said, “Oh, okay.”  He looked up and down the street, peered inside a window of the house, and checked the bushes before being satisfied that there were no onlookers.  Axel chuckled weakly at him and let Roxas sweep him up into a hug and a quick kiss.

“See you later?” Axel asked.

Roxas, face beet red, nodded as the redhead walked down the yard to his car.  Once Axel was out of sight, he went back into the house and was, as usual, immediately accosted upon entry.

“Did you invite Axel to graduation?” Sora asked in a way that suggested he was greedy for the answer.

Roxas looked at Sora in horror and repulsion, nostrils flaring.  Whether he was repulsed by Sora’s very presence or his very offensive question, no one knows for sure.  “Of course not.  Everyone will be there!  Especially—” he lowered his voice, “—Chief Chilly.”

“So?!” Sora rounded on him.  “You can brag to everyone you’re dating an ~olda guy~!  And then show him as proof!”

“This is it,” Roxas whispered.  “This is actual hell.”

Sora clapped him on the back rather painfully.  “That’s great, I gotta go.”

He ran to the door, nearly slamming into it.  Eventually he managed to get it open, and bust out with a sound like a small elephant thrashing about a wind chime factory.  Roxas watched the door, truly worrying about his very strange brother.  He was just about to retire to his bedroom when Sora came barreling back into the house about as viciously as he’d exited it.

“Sorry, where were we?”  He was breathing hard, hands braced against his knees.

“What did you just do?”  Our boy looked at Sora with suspicious scrutiny.

“I just made your life, as always.  You’d be lost without me.”  The brunette recovered himself and said, “Seriously, what were we talking about?  Oh, yeah, you were telling me why you’re keeping your super hot, super nice, super talented boyfriend a secret.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Roxas said glumly.  If questioned, he wouldn’t admit that that fact made him glum, but we know the truth.

“What now?”  Sora looked at his brother, dumbfounded.

“We’re not even dating, really…,” our boy trailed off.

“Huh?” Sora grunted, literally not understanding Roxas’s words in that particular order.

“It’s not, y’know, official or anything,” Roxas blushed.  “If anything we’re ‘seeing’ each other.”

“Yeah,” Sora said with a ‘pft’.  “Whatever that means.  More like seeing each other in the nude!”  He laughed in Roxas’s face and skittered up the stairs and out of view like a cockroach about to be stepped on.

“I know you’re planning something!  Don’t do anything I’ll regret!”  Roxas shouted up at him.  “Also you’re disgusting and I hate you!”

Roxas felt eyes on him and peered around, sights landing on his father, Professor Precipitation, who was watching him.  “This is no business of yours, father.  Move along.”  He loped up the stairs, set on curling up in his room to study, pout about Axel, and also pray that whatever Sora was plotting was as poorly thought out as his very existence was. 

***             *             *             *             ***

Roxas floated out of his high school’s front doors after his last exam on a cloud of positivity.  He’d _aced_ that exam.  Made it his bitch.  His academic success and the relief of being mostly done with school was a delectable pairing.  He marched off toward the Canteen, thinking it was probably the last time he was going to be walking this route.  He was delightfully okay with that fact, realizing he was ready to move on to new things.  Like college.  And love.

What?  Love?  What?  Yes, love.  Roxas was not dumb.  He knew if he got into a relationship with Axel they might… have the love.  What even were they right now?  Didn’t you have to have a conversation to be in a relationship?  Were they really just still friends?  Roxas sighed.  He was kidding himself if he thought he had any idea what he was getting himself into. 

Speaking of new things though, Roxas was on his way to the Canteen to talk to Cid about rearranging his hours once it came time for college.  He was hoping he could work about the same hours that Axel worked at Kupo.  I mean, he seemed to be able to juggle classes, work, having a band, _and_ a life.  Roxas definitely didn’t want those hours so that he could spend all his free time with Axel.  That would be irresponsible.  And gaaaay.

He thought he remembered Axel saying he was working that afternoon.  Maybe he could drop by Kupo for a chai tea before heading home.  He was pondering his options for tea (and nothing else) when he strolled up to the Canteen.  He caught sight of Cid out front, bent under the hood of some old car. 

“What is this, your personal garage?” Roxas said, poking fun at his boss.

“This is my property, ain’t it?” Cid growled.  He straightened up and regarded Roxas.  “Hand me that torque wrench, wouldja?”

Roxas obliged, then sat on the curb near where he was working.  “What’s with this old clunker?”

Cid coughed in outrage.  “ _Old clunker?_ Boy, have some respect.  This is a 1969 Triumph TR6.”

Roxas shrugged.  “Okay.  I guess it looks… how a car should look?” he knew he was floundering in this conversation.  Bring it back around, kiddo!  “How come you’re fixing it up?”

Something under the hood clanged and Cid garbled out a string of swears.  “You can say it’s one of my hobbies.  What do you want?  I don’t remember scheduling you for today.”

“I was wonder if–since I’m going to college at the end of the summer–we could adjust my hours a little?” Roxas held his breath.  His relationship with Cid was usually well and good as long as they didn’t have to speak to each other for very long.

“Yeah,” he lit a cigarette and puffed, speaking around it.  “I figured.  I’ll just have to hire some other high school pipsqueak to pick up some of your shifts.”

“I’ve actually got a pipsqueak in mind for you.”

*          *           *          *          *

Once Roxas was finished his business at the Canteen, he headed over to Kupo for a quick delicious treat.  And also some tea.  Haaaa you see what I did there?  It was sort of a trek to get there, but now that his exams were done and he was free at last, he didn’t mind the walk.  It was a beautiful spring day, shifting quickly into summer.

Our boy got to Kupo before he figured out what he was going to say to Axel.  Last time they talked the blonde told him he wouldn’t introduce him to his father and he couldn’t come to graduation.  Now, our boy was not heartless.  He was feeling a little remorse about all that disparaging talk.  It wasn’t that he didn’t _want_ those things… he just wanted his father to be either incapacitated or dead when he found out about their relationship.  Standing in front of the door, his breath caught in his throat and he forcibly willed himself to enter the shop.  Axel spotted him immediately and broke out into a grin so delighted and pure that Roxas had to brace himself against the door frame, lest he be knocked over by the redhead’s wonderfulness. 

Axel came around the counter and rushed to him, enveloping him in a crushing hug.  “What are you doing here?”

Roxas, reminding himself that Cloud rarely left his crossword dungeon, returned the hug and smiled back at him.  “Just wanted to visit, maybe get some tea?”

“Of course!  My break is coming up, I’ll make us drinks and sit with you.”  Axel went back behind the counter, but turned, still grinning, to look at Roxas again, as if to check that he was still there.

Roxas smiled, bemused and incredulous that Axel- the sweetest, sexiest, all around best person felt something for our little old boy.  He felt his face heat and tried to calm himself as he waited for Axel to come back with their drinks.

When he did return, he handed Roxas his drink and directed them to a snug little loveseat.  If we were dealing with, like, Last Week Roxas, he never would have allowed himself to be led to the cuddliest looking couch with Axel.  He felt a small surge of pride knowing he’d made a fragment of progress on his fear-of-love front.  The pride was replaced with fright when they sat and Axel wound their hands together and kissed our boy’s cheek.

“Sorry,” Axel said, looking a little guilty.  “It’s just good to see you.”

Roxas opened his mouth to speak but he couldn’t find any words that were willing to be spoken.

“Check this out though,” Axel handed Roxas a little paper pastry bag.  “We just started making these sea salt icing cupcakes.  They’re pretty damn good.”

Roxas, never one to turn down sweets, happily bit into one of the cupcakes.  “Mmf!  Ifth groob!”

Axel snorted, chortling at our boy.  “I think so too.  Oh, you’ve got… some icing…”

The blonde just looked at him, confused.  He may have tilted his head like a puppy.  Point is, from Axel’s point of view, he had icing on his upper lip and he was looking utterly adorable.  Discretion thrown to the wind, the redhead tilted Roxas’s face up and leaned in slowly.  He could hear the blonde’s breath hitch and Axel smirked before wiping the boy’s lip with a napkin.

Roxas’s eyes shot open, shocked, maybe even appalled.  Wanting to say something but not wanting to be indecorous and speak with his mouth full any longer, he just chewed wrathfully, keeping his eyes on Axel.  Obviously he was a wily one and needed to be watched.

One of the baristas behind the counter called to Axel, asking for an extra hand.  He looked back and Roxas and frowned.  “I’m sorry, I’ll be right back.”  He left his drink and phone on the table next to Roxas’s and hurried off.

Our boy could only watch him and stew about the redhead’s impudence.  Still soaking in his petulance, he heard his phone ringing and answered it thoughtlessly.

“Hello?” Roxas greeted.

“Oh, uh, hello,” a surprised sounding women’s voice came over the receiver.

Who the what was calling him?  Our boy scrunched his nose in puzzlement.  He checked the phone for caller ID and gulped.  It was ‘Mom’ calling.  It became clear to our boy in that moment that this was not, in fact, his phone and he was not, in fact, speaking to his mother.  He was speaking to Axel’s mother.

Roxas shakily put the phone to his ear again.

“Is Axel there?” she asked.  “Who is this?”

“Um, well, he’s making coffee.  I’m sorry, I’ll go get him- I’m his…” Roxas juggled a few different options and settled on one.  “Associate.”

“Axel has an… associate?  Like for business?” she asked skeptically.  “That boy, always busy.  Well, tell me all about you!”

“I— don’t you want me to get your son?”  Roxas asked, praying she would offer to call back later, maybe demand to speak to her child, or something.  Anything to get him out of this phone call without our boy having to act ill-mannered.

“Oh, I can talk to him anytime!  What’s your name, hon?” Roxas could hear her smiling through the words.

“My name is Roxas, I work at one of the restaurants his band plays at,” our boy shrugged, not knowing what else to say to her.  He decided to just say what came to his mind.  “In case it means anything coming from a stranger, you raised an amazing human being.  And I don’t know if he tells you, but he’s really proud of you and your work.”

“Aren’t you sweet,” she cooed.  “Well, Roxas, you seem pretty special yourself.  Don’t think he hasn’t told me about you.”

Roxas’s blood ran cold.  “He… has?”

“Don’t act so surprised!  He’s not one for hiding his emotions, you must know he’s fond of you,” she laughed.  “And I can see why!  You’re darling.”

Roxas looked up to see Axel staring down at him, a dubious look on his face.  “Thank you, ma’am.  Here’s your son, sorry again.”  He handed the phone to the redhead who just shook his head incredulously at our boy, smiling.

“Hey Ma,” Axel kept his eyes on Roxas.  “Oh, he did?”  A pause.  “I know, I’ll try.”  The redhead listened, then his smile dropped a fraction.  “Okay, thanks for giving me a heads up.  I gotta go, I love you.  Uh huh.  Uh huh.  I will.  Bye.”

He hung up the phone and plopped next to our boy on the couch.  “Movin’ a little fast now, are we?” he teased.  “Answering my phone, meeting my mom?”

Roxas hid his face behind his tea.  “I’d like to disappear now.”

“Well, _I_ wouldn’t like that,” Axel said.  “And neither would my mom, she _loves_ you.”  He let out a good natured laugh.  “Can’t blame her for that, I’m in the same boat.”

Roxas, whose face couldn’t get any redder, tried to gather his thoughts.  “What did she say to you?”

“Nothing important,” the redhead said flippantly.

Roxas fidgeted with his hands.  “Well, I really came here to tell you that I’m sorry about being weird about the whole graduation/my dad thing.  I really want to do this whole thing right and I can’t have my dad ruining it.”

“It’s fine, Rox, I understand,” Axel said.  He placed a hand on the blonde’s shoulder.  “I just wish you would trust that we could get through anything.”

Since the blonde didn’t have an answer for that, he simply sipped his tea primly and glared at Axel for making him look so unreasonable.

***             *             *             *             ***

 “Y’ALL READY FOR THIS?!”

Sora was screaming like the world’s squeakiest hype man from the foot of the stairs.  Riku and The Overcaster stood beside him, only lightly shuddering.

Roxas appeared at the top of the stairs, wearing his white commencement robe and clutching his cap, tassel dangling and fluttering with every movement.

Sora exploded into whoops.  “ROXAS YOU’RE A BEAST!”

Cloud regarded him with mild repugnance.  “How I wish you’d never been born.”

Sora finished out the route in his hype train and metaphorically hopped off.  He leaned close to his water vapor accumulation of a father and furiously whispered, “Your life is meaningless without me.”

He immediately went back to smiling and hollering motivational drivel as Roxas descended the stairs.

“Is it even possible for you to make a bigger deal out of this?” Roxas asked his brother, exasperation seeping out of his mouth and dripping onto the floor.

“Oh, baby,” Sora leaned an elbow on our boy’s shoulder.  “It is and I did.”

“Well,” Roxas sighed and took the last step.  “If I die from humiliation, I won’t have to suffer you anymore.”

“That’s the spirit!” Sora said.  “Now let’s go!  You only graduate from high school once!!”

Once they made it to the school gymnasium and parted ways so that Roxas could get all commencement-y, things got a whole lot more boring.  Roxas sat and waited, then stood in line and waited.  Now he was waiting to hear his name and cross the stage when his eyes wandered over to the crowd of loved ones gathered for all these lamer high school graduates.  It was easy to see his brother, leaping as high as he could, trying to get an aerial photo for posterity.  The line moved and our boy took another step forward, nearly to the stage steps.  His gaze lingered on his family and he felt a punch of guilt.  Was he really that afraid of his father’s family annihilator tendencies?  Or was it… something else?  He inhaled sharply, blinking.  If he didn’t know any better, he would say that he saw Axel.  Obviously, our boy _didn’t_ know any better, because there the redhead was, sitting a row ahead of his family, smiling at our boy with such fondness and pride.  Now he felt even guiltier, but mostly, he just felt happy to see the redhead.  His heart was aflutter as he beamed at Axel and waved shyly.  He felt a nudge from behind and looked ahead of him; it was his turn to cross the stage.  Our boy took a breath and did his best to be graceful and not trip.  It was all less dramatic than he’d imagined and even if it had been the scene he expected, it was all over within a few seconds.  He was off the stage and seated not a wink later.  The rest of the ceremony went quickly, our boy only thinking of how close he was to Axel and how soon he’d get to see him.

“We ask that you do not throw your caps as it is a safety hazard,” the principal of Roxas’s school was saying.  “Congratulations and good night.”

The entire congregation broke into as everyone stood and milled about aimlessly like actual animals.  Roxas tried his damnedest to send Axel psychic waves telling him where to find our boy.  He was sure they had a strong enough mental connection by now that he would hear him.  Roxas hoped, anyway.  Eventually it worked and Roxas caught sight of Axel’s vibrant hair.

Our boy ran up to his love, his body filling with excitement and relief, his eyes brimming.  He threw himself into the redhead’s arms and hugged tightly.  He laughed, and he felt Axel’s chest move with his laughter.  He pulled back and dabbed at his eyes with his robe sleeve.

“What are you doing here?!” Roxas asked.

Axel held both Roxas’s shoulders.  “I told you I wouldn’t miss it.” 

The two just smiled at each other like dumb ol’ idiots until the unmistakable sound of Sora’s screeching excitement reached their ears.

Roxas remembered how public they were and that a certain nosy, grey father guy was not far off.  He jerked away from Axel and said, “I’m sorry, you have to leave.”

“What?  Roxas—”

Roxas whipped around and saw Sora, Riku, and Cloud closing in.  “My dad- I can’t- I’m sorry!!” 

He pushed Axel into a crowd of people making their way to the parking lot.  As he turned, his family was just a few feet away.

Cloud patted Roxas on the head.  “You’ve done it.  Excellent.”

Since that was about the most praise he had ever and would ever get from his father, he couldn’t help but grin.  “Thanks.”

“Who was the spindly fellow just now?  The one you sacrificed to the horde.” Cloud waited for Roxas’s response expectantly.

“Oh, him?” our boy scratched the back of his head.  “He’s just my… janitorial… friend.”

Cloud shot his son a suspicious look.  “The janitors are friendly at this school.  A little _too_ friendly.”

“Yeah,” Roxas drawled and quickly changed the subject.  “So, what now?”

“Now,” Sora grabbed Roxas’s cap and threw it in the air.  “Now we party!!”

“This is where I take my leave,” Cloud said, already trying to furtively scooch toward the exit.  “Have fun, hope you don’t die- especially you, Roxas,” Master Misty ruffled his son’s hair, “and of course, my new favorite son, Riku.”  He put a hand on Riku’s shoulder.  His lips trembled slightly like they were going to raise in a smile, but the muscle strength just wasn’t there and they fell again into their usual frowny stoic flatness.

“What?!” Sora screeched.  “You must party!  Or the party juices in you will bubble up and make you explode!”

Cloud just shrugged.  “I’d rather have my ears chewed off by rats.”  He then slipped away without another word. 

“Great, nice talking to you!” Sora shouted after his father, waving like he was directing a plane to land.  Then his eyes turned to slits and he muttered darkly, “Good riddance.”

“I’m gonna miss him,” Riku said, gazing off after him.  “Funny guy.”

Roxas nodded stiffly and patted Riku’s shoulder.  “You know nothing.”  He turned to his brother, who was still glaring off in the direction of their father’s retreating back.  “So where are we partying?  We can’t party at the jerky store anymore, remember?  You’re banned for life.”

“Psh, I don’t need that place anymore,” Sora nudged our boy conspiratorially.  “I’ve got a dealer now.”

“Right,” Roxas said, holding his arm where Sora touched him as if it were infected. 

It was about that time that Axel had clawed his way back into the gymnasium and found his way to them, wheezing slightly.  “Who pushes people?!”

Roxas’s face fell into what could only be described as a devastated pout, but as I am too proud a narrator to depict our boy in such a way, I’ll settle for a manly scowl.  “I’m sorry, but I saved your life.  Sergeant Stormy would have actually castrated you.”

Axel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.  “Roxas, I’m serious, you can’t keep—”

“WE NEED TO PARTY,” Sora shouted.  “PRONTO.  CANTEEN.  NOW.”

The four began to make their way to Axel’s car, Sora grabbing Roxas hand and swinging it.  “We convinced your old stick in the mud boss to reserve the Canteen for your graduation party.  I told him if he didn’t that you’d quit.  He said that was a risk he was willing to take so I had to resort to arson.”

“Nice work, brotholomew,” Roxas squeezed his brother’s hand.  “Thanks.”

“That is, if the place is still standing,” Riku said, giving Sora some slight side eye.

“Oh, please,” Sora flapped a hand a Riku, presumably trying to swat him away.  “It was only a small kitchen fire.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week’s Fun Fact is a testament to how deeply I thought about the characters in this story. I've got yer ages/birthdays/zodiac signs.  
> Roxas is a fresh 18, as the story takes place around the end of May- beginning of June and his birthday is May 13th, which makes him a Taurus  
> Axel is 21, Cancer on the cusp of Leo, birthday July 22nd  
> Sora is 17, he’s a full out Libra, birthday is October 2nd  
> Riku is 19, Aquarius, birthday January 31st  
> Demyx is 21, he’s obvi a Leo, birthday is August 18th  
> Zexion is 20, he’s a Gemini, birthday is June 4th

Spoiler alert, the Canteen was still standing.  You think a dinky ol’ kitchen fire could do that place in?  No way.  Not the first kitchen fire, wouldn’t be the last.  Now let’s get to this sick, ultimate, never-been-a-better-party, party.  Y’all, everyone was at this party.  I’m talking about all the characters you know and love.  I’m talking about all the characters you haven’t noticed because they’ve been in the background.  I’m talking about the characters that are important but you haven’t met yet.  All the characters were there, but I’m not going to describe all of them because that would be exhausting and, honestly, check yourself.  You don’t want to read all that.  You know what you’re here for, I know what you’re here for.  So let’s get to it.  Zoom in on our two brothers, a few drinks in, waist deep in party.

“So,” Roxas had to shout to his brother for him to hear through the din at the Canteen.  “How did you sneak Axel into graduation?”

Sora laughed.  “You had four tickets, you dummy!  I just gave him the extra and told him to avoid Commander Cloudy.”

“Oh.”  Roxas _did_ feel like a dummy.  But it was okay, because he was a _graduated_ dummy.  His memory flicked back to the day when he walked with Axel and Sora was being all… Sora-ish about the redhead coming to graduation.  Our boy should have figured he was doing something meddlesome like giving Axel a ticket.

Sora had promptly gotten distracted and turned away from our boy.  With all these people around, Roxas knew that Sora probably wouldn’t be the best company.

“Can I get you a drink?” asked a voice by his ear.

Roxas’s heart fluttered and he couldn’t help but smile.  He casually looked over his shoulder and said, “Well, we are here celebrating my achievement.”  Our boy turned to face Axel, who chuckled.  Roxas, feeling giddy from his graduation and bold from drink, laced his fingers behind the redhead’s neck.  Axel responded eagerly, resting his hands at the small of Roxas’s back.  Our boy blushed at the contact- especially in such a public place- but with no fear of Cloud seeing them, Roxas found himself mostly unbothered to be seen with Axel.  Isn’t that how you want your crush to be with you?  Mostly unbothered to be seen with you?  Our boy is our boy and that will never change, but sometimes he’s kind of a dick.  Our dick smiled innocently.  “Buying me a drink is the least you could do.”

Something intense burned in Axel’s gaze as his emerald eyes held Roxas’s blue ones.  “You’re absolutely right,” he said.  He hesitated a moment, not wanting this embrace to end.  He seemed to make up his mind and swooped in, kissing our boy’s cheek sweetly.  He pulled away and smirked at Roxas’s red face.  “I’ll be back so soon.”

Roxas watched him head to the bar in a bit of a daze. 

“Hey killer, I got us shots,” Sora said, shoving a lime wedge and a salt shaker in his face.  The two clinked glasses and Sora shouted, “WOOO BEST DAY EVER!!”

Salt, shot, lime.  Sora was whisking the empty glass out of his hands as soon as he’d finished, bellowing, “ANOTHER!”

Roxas chuckled.  Just as Sora had disappeared to the bar, Axel reappeared, holding a drink.  He smiled and handed it to Roxas.

“Fireball and coke okay?” he asked. 

Our boy nodded and took a sip.  He watched Axel fidget and look uncomfortable for a few long moments before asking, “What is it?”

“I know this isn’t really the place, but I was hoping we could talk,” Axel said, fingertips lightly caressing Roxas’s cheek.  His eyes held worry, which did not sit well with our boy.

“Oh,” Roxas’s eyes flicked to the bar to see if Sora could sweep in conveniently and save him from whatever soul-searching conversation that Axel felt needed to happen.

When no help arrived, Roxas took a long sip of his drink and nodded at Axel, walking to a table like a man walking to the gallows.

“Why so somber?” Axel gave him a winning smile.  “Don’t want to talk to me?”

Roxas’s heart fluttered at the smile and his lowered inhibitions nearly made him tackle the man to the ground and ravage him.  “Not if it’s going to be a particularly difficult conversation,” he said honestly.

Axel put a hand on his chest delicately.  “Ouch, Rox.  You wound my soul with your lack of faith.”

“Pfft, faith.  You’re special, you know,” Roxas said, his tone frank.  “I’ve never been more terrified just to speak with someone.”

The redhead’s eyes softened.  “I don’t want you to be terrified of me.  Please, just trust me.”  He held his hand out for Roxas to sit at the high top table and he sat as well.  “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”  He ran a hand through his hair anxiously.  “I really need you to talk to me.  When you left that night, I didn’t think I was ever going to hear from you again.”  His eyes bore into Roxas’s.  “That scared the hell outta me.”  He sighed and looked away.  “I’m getting to the point where I’m thinking about you more than I’m not and letting you go is becoming less of an option.  I need to know if you’re still in.  If you still want to do… whatever we’re doing.”

Roxas was stunned.  This was the closest thing to a confession of feelings he’d ever experienced.  Well, once in third grade a girl was dared to kiss him on the cheek.  She did and then she gagged.  That was the closest to this moment that our boy had experienced.  A wave of genuine emotion that crashed into our boy.  He had to catch his breath before answering.  “I’m so sorry about running away.  This is all just way more than I’ve ever dealt with and I don’t know how to talk to you about it,” Roxas confessed.

“You seemed fine to talk to Demyx,” Axel muttered.

With emotions flowing free and whiskey in his veins, anger came quickly to Roxas.  “I told him that in confidence!”

“Relax, he didn’t tell me anything,” he rolled his eyes.  “It’s a two way street, Rox.  I can’t be there for you if you don’t let me in.”

“What exactly are you getting to?” Roxas asked, raising one eyebrow skeptically.  He was doing his damnedest to avoid talking about letting him in.  Hmmm maybe he was lacking in his communication skills wow who knew.

“I mean, I’m _getting to_ the fact that you have terrible communication skills but for some reason I still like you and want to spend time with you.” Axel said, a little harshly.  “I wanted this to be more romantic, but you’re really being obstinate today.  Do you want to make this offic—”

“Axel?”

 Roxas looked up at the woman who had interrupted him.  Our boy’s mouth was set in a pout and he nearly told her off, but he caught the expression on Axel’s face.  His lips were parted and his eyes were cloudy.  He was frozen like that for a few seconds before he slowly turned to face the woman.  Roxas thought smugly that he was glad that the redhead would take care of telling her off for him.

But he didn’t.  His voice was hard when he said, “Aerith.”

Wait, wait.  Roxas knew that name.  Who was this person again?  Come on, booze brain.  Think!

As Roxas began raking his schmaltzy brain for answers and Axel turned to face him again, looking very much like he was trying to hide his annoyance.  “Roxas,” he said formally.  “This is Aerith, my ex-fiancée.”

Roxas worked his mouth up and down and finally forced himself to speak.  “Oh. Hello.”

The girl waved at him and smiled sweetly, brushing a lock of wispy hair out of her eye.  She was pretty and, with her long chestnut hair swept up in a ponytail, she had a sort of innocence to her.  Our boy looked at them together, as a pair, and they looked… good.

Roxas began to take small steps away from the whole situation.  “I’ll just let you guys be, then.”

“Wait, Roxas,” Axel stopped him.  “We still have to talk.”

Roxas nodded and walked away, making a beeline to the bar.  “Maestro!  Your finest, cheapest tequila shot, please.” 

“Don’t worry, Rox, I gotcha covered,” Sora was turning away from the bar with what looked like six drinks in his arms.  “Here, take a couple!”

Roxas did take a couple.  He then set out to find Demyx because beside Sora and Axel, he was the only other person he could talk to.  He downed one of Sora’s drinks while he looked.  It took a few minutes of ‘excuse me’s and awkward scooting around people to find him.  He was in a dark corner of the Canteen and there were hands on him.  Who the heck is he macking on?

“Hey Demyx, sorry to- uh- interrupt,” Roxas said timidly, tapping him on the shoulder.

Demyx jolted and turned, revealing a flushed and shy Zexion.  He spun and put his fists up, making a karate-type ‘HIYA’ sort of yell.  “Oh, hi Roxas.  What’s up?”

Roxas blushed at the two of them and took a nice thoughtful moment to regret pretty much his whole life up until that point.  “Aerith’s here.”

“Wait, here-here?  Now?” he asked.  “What’s happening?”

“She and Axel are talking.  Sitting.  At a table.  _That means it’s serious!”_  Roxas whispered heatedly.  “What do I do?!”

“Okay, well, first,” Demyx slung an arm around Zexion who looked more and more like a growing shadow than a man.  “You’re going to want to freak out, but that’s the wrong move.  Just be cool.  Axel’s never given you anything to worry about before, has he?”

“Be… cool…” Roxas repeated doubtfully, eyes turning crazier by the second.

“HA,” Sora barked out a laugh as he stumbled his way over to the three of them.  “Roxas has never been cool in his life.  What are we talking about?”

“You’re not helping,” Demyx sniffed.  “Go find Riku.”

“Oh, you know?  I think I will!” Sora nodded excitedly and left the way he came.  In super dumb shoes.

“I think that maybe,” Roxas hugged his arms to his side.  “Maybe I can be cool.”

“That’s the spirit!!!”  Demyx gave him an encouraging slap on the butt, earning him an indignant look from Zexion.  “I’ve never seen anyone cooler!”

“I need a drink.”  Roxas downed his second drink courtesy of Sora and darted to the bar, asking for a drink and then a backup drink in case the first one failed.

“Take it easy there, tiger.”

Roxas turned, and grew very pale.  Sitting next to him at the bar was Tifa.  She smirked at our boy and nodded to Axel and Aerith.  “They look good together, huh?”

Roxas reluctantly dragged his eyes over to them.  Aerith was leaning over the table, rapt and engaged in conversation.

“Guess they have a lot to talk about,” Tifa added.  She inspected her nails and said, “Aerith told me she was planning on asking Axel to get back together.  I don’t think either one of them really moved on.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Roxas spat.  “Axel _has_ moved on.  With me.”

“Oh? My mistake,” she purred.  “But it does _look_ like they’re getting along again.”

Our boy drank deeply as his backup drink became in need of a backup.  He grumbled and looked over at the couple in question and swore.  Axel was now talking and smiling, a sweet, only-supposed-to-be-for-Roxas smile.  As the lines around Roxas’s world became blurry, his hurt and anger sharpened. 

The blonde stared blankly ahead, avoiding the two ex-lovers, as the snake hissed in his ear.

“Now that your lover boy is occupied, there’s nothing keeping _this_ from happening,” she motioned between the two of them.  “What do you say, blondie?”

Roxas looked over at the woman speaking to him- or was it women?  Did Tifa have sisters?  Her name was Tifa right?  Such a strange name.  She should be Tina from now on.  The room spun as Tina’s words finally fit him. 

“Listen, _Tina_ —” Then his stomach revolted and he vomited on Tina’s- or maybe Tina’s sisters’- lap.  He vaguely heard her screech like a wounded harpy before he spun and staggered around the bar, stumbling into people, trying to find Sora, or Riku, or really anyone that cared about him unlike SOME redheaded hotties.

Not finding anyone, he settled for hollering his brother’s name in the middle of the bar.  “SORAAA!  SORA I’M DYING WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“Roxas!” Axel rushed over worriedly.  “Rox, what is it?  Are you okay?”

Our boy glowered at the man.  “Not YOU.  Don’t want you.”

“I think Sora and Riku left,” the redhead had his hands out, ready to catch the blonde if he keeled over.

“Not you,” Roxas whined and swayed.

“What?” Axel glanced around and found every eye at the bar trained on them.  “Love, come on, let’s find somewhere to talk.”

“NO,” Roxas shouted.  “If we talk it’s over!”

Axel’s eyebrows drew together in a pained expression.  “What’s happening?  What brought this on?  How can I fix it?”

“YOU CAN’T,” Roxas’s eyes watered and he turned to flee, but Axel grabbed him by the waist and flung our boy over his shoulder.  Roxas’s eyes widened in shock and then his anger found him again.  “HEY.  PUT ME DOWN!”

“I’m taking you home,” Axel said, marching out the door into the cool night air.

Axel made quick work of getting Roxas in Minnie and the two were soon speeding down the road towards the Clavella house.

Axel flicked his troubled gaze from the road to the drunk little blonde in his passenger seat.  “I’m sorry I manhandled you.  Are you alright?”

Roxas mumbled and tucked himself closer to the car door.

“You probably shouldn’t have gone so hard, sweetheart,” Axel said, tearing his eyes away from Roxas to watch the road again.

Our boy jerked around.  “YOU’RE a sweetheart!  YOU shouldn’t have gone so hard!” he shouted hotly.  The swift movement caught up with him though and he had to brace himself against the seat while the spins hit him.  “What are you, my dad?”

“Roxas, I—” Axel stopped himself and sighed.  He banged his palm on the steering wheel exasperatedly.  “You are so frustrating.  Every time I get a little closer to you, you push me away.”

This received some grumbles and whines from Roxas, but no discernable words.

Axel pulled up to the house, noting Riku’s car in the driveway.  They idled in silence for a moment before Axel spoke again.  “This is your call now.  If you can’t talk to me, I have to walk away.”

“Fine,” the blonde tried to make his voice sound firm, but it came out a whimper.  “Go away.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere,” Axel said softly.  “I want to be with you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Roxas challenged.  “Oh, _really,_ Mr. I’m With My Ex Again?!”

“That’s not what happened,” Axel answered coolly.

“How do I know?!” Roxas’s eyes began to well up.  “You two seemed pretty cozy to me.”

“Hm, so weird, sounds like you want to know about something,” Axel rolled his eyes.  “You know what normal people do about that?  They _talk about it._ ”

“God, why do you have to be such an asshole all the time?” Roxas fumbled angrily with his seatbelt.

Axel just stared out the windshield away from Roxas grimly.  “Just lucky, I guess.”

Our boy finally freed himself from the seatbelt prison and now began scrabbling at the door handle.  He got it open with a grunt and catapulted himself out.  Sticking his head back in the car, he fixed Axel with a withering glare.  “I just want to be with you and you’re making everything so stupid and complicated.”

“And _you’re_ acting like a child,” the redhead took a deep breath and muttered, “I should have known better than to bring this up when you’re drunk.  I thought you were more mature than this.”

“I AM mature!” Roxas shrieked.  “I HATE YOU!”  He turned and slammed the door before the first tear fell.  Our puerile boy began walking up the driveway as the car behind him idled.  As soon as he’d gotten the front door open, Minnie tore away into the night.

Roxas stumbled up the starts and fumbled with the knob to Sora’s door and swore.  He took a few slow, steadying breaths and tried the door again.  It opened this time, but quicker than Roxas anticipated and he fell into the room and onto his face.  Our boy was pretty disoriented, but he could make out labored breathing coming from Sora’s bed.

“Quit doing it, I need supporting,” Roxas murmured into the carpet.

Sora and Riku lay shocked and still in Sora’s bed.  We won’t worry about them.  They were probably just sleeping.  That’s what we’re telling ourselves anyway.

“Rox?  You need some help standing?” Sora asked.  He looked to Riku and nudged him to go support Roxas.  He frowned and shook his head, as if to say: ‘not my brother, not my problem.’

“No, no,” Roxas pulled himself onto his feet like a baby taking his first steps.  “I got this.”  He ambled over, half-falling, and collapsed onto the bed and into tears.

Sora rubbed his brother’s back comfortingly.  “What’s up, buddy?”

“I think I ruined things with Axel,” Roxas blubbered.

“Yeah, you’ve got to stop doing that,” Sora couldn’t hold back his giggles.  Riku gave him a look that definitely said, ‘what the hell is wrong with you?’

“DON’T LAUGH AT ME,” Roxas wailed.  “MY LIFE IS IN SHAMBLES.”

“Don’t be a drama queen,” Sora said.  “Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Axel’s ex came to my party and they hugged and talked and stuff.”  Roxas stared at the two of them with watery, terror-filled eyes. 

“And then what?” Riku prompted.

“And then my feelings were hurt so I said terrible things to Axel after he drove me home,” Roxas said shakily, tears rolling down his cheeks.  “And I think at the party he was going to ask me to be his boyfriend.  But I wouldn’t want me as a boyfriend now.”  Tears streaming, he sobbed out a literal cry for help.  “Also, I think I vomited on some twins.”

Sora snorted, but covered it slyly with a cough.

“One thing is for sure,” Riku said, uncharacteristically helpful and comforting.  “It won’t seem so bad in the morning.”

“Oh, what do you know?!” Roxas tried to scowl, but it just turned into an ugly cry face.  “You’re just happily in love.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Sora said with excessive patience.  “We are in no position to give relationship advice.”

Roxas glared at his brother.  “Don’t make me give you the evil eye.”

“You wouldn’t!” Sora gaped.  “Nary a soul has survived your evil eye.”

“Yer damn tootin’,” Roxas mumbled.  His eyelids began to droop and he slumped onto both the bodies under him.

“Uh, Rox, don’t you want your own bed?” Sora suggested.

“Can’t—” he sighed and wriggled around to get comfortable. “—be alone.”

Sora frowned at his poor brother and looked to Riku.  “Is this okay with you?”

Riku made a ‘pfft’ sound and wrapped the brunette up in his arms.  “Don’t think we have a choice.”

*             *             *             *             *

When our sweet hungover boy woke up in the early afternoon, he remembered fragments of the night before, flashes of scenes and feelings, oh, the feelings.  He felt the hard spiky ball of shame in the pit of his stomach and a vague, general unhappiness.  He was lying on his stomach on the most uncomfortable surface.  He lifted his head to try to see where he was.  Before him was his brother and Riku’s sleeping faces.  It made him sick.  Literally sick; as he felt his stomach heave, he scrambled off the bodies to make a mad dash to the bathroom.  He made it to the toilet and emptied himself of the night before.  Tears were stinging at his puffy eyes, but he couldn’t tell if it was from his malaise or the morose pit of despair that was his heart.  When he was sure he had evacuated all the contents of his stomach, he cleaned himself up and headed back to Sora’s room.

Sora and Riku were now awake, they probably couldn’t sleep through the trampling that had just occurred.  They both looked up at our boy worriedly.

“You good?” Riku asked, laconic as always.

Roxas nodded, then shrugged, then shook his head.  “I have no idea.  I’m still piecing things together.”

“Here’s what I know,” Sora said, scrolling through his phone.  “Axel is blowing up my phone.”

“That’s my phone,” Riku said.

Sora flapped a hand at him.  “Same, same.”

At the mention of Axel’s name Roxas felt a jolt of shame.  “I fucked things up with him, huh?”

“You can always try to fix it,” Sora suggested.  He smiled at his brother.  “The fact that he’s trying to get ahold of you is a good sign.”

Roxas just shook his head again.  “I don’t know.  I need to think.  I’m gonna shower.”  He started to walk away and paused at the door.  “Thank you guys, for everything.  Sorry for sleeping on you.”

Sora looked at him seriously.  “We loved every second of it.  It was like we had a bald, skinny, drunk dog.”

Roxas laughed despite himself and went to the bathroom again.  As the steam filled the room, Roxas surveyed himself in the mirror.  His eyes looked dull, swollen, and tired.  There were little red specks smattered around his face, probably from the retching.  His hair was limp and overall, he felt like he wasn’t a whole person anymore.  He sighed and got into the shower, cold skin erupting into goosebumps under the hot water.  Our boy breathed deep and relished the heat.  As he washed himself, he revisited the night before.  He remembered Axel’s ex, he remembered being distressed and drinking too much.  He remembered Axel driving him home and being _very_ upset.  He could just barely recall saying things he instantly regretted on that car ride.  Lastly, he remembered crying.  Worry, shame, and guilt filled him and on top of it all, he pitied himself.  He didn’t know what was going on with Axel and his ex, but he knew that if his behavior cost him the most amazing person he’d ever experienced, he’d never forgive himself.

When Roxas was satisfied he’d washed away all the physical residue from the night before, he stepped out of the shower and toweled off.  He then dressed in his most comfortable (also his ugliest) pair of sweatpants.  He found his phone on the floor in Sora’s room and thought about picking it up, but then reconsidered.  There was no way he was going to read any text from Axel, good or bad, the way he felt at the moment.

He left the phone where it sat on the floor and curled up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and covered in crochet needles and yarn.

Cloud looked up from his writing to peer at his son.  “You look like human garbage.”

“Gee, thanks,” Roxas growled and wrestled with some particularly tangled yarn.

“Have a little too much fun last night?” Magistrate Misty asked.

“Is that any of your business?” our boy snapped, snarling at the knot in his yarn.

Cloudy Day Lewis shrugged.  “I’ve stopped caring anyway.”

Riku and Sora started downstairs, but stopped short about halfway down, exchanging worried looks.

“Oh god, he’s crocheting,” Riku shook his head mournfully.

“If we don’t do something, he’s never going to talk to Axel again,” Sora frantically whispered, eyeing his brother.

“You’re right, he’s too afraid of confrontation,” Riku whispered back.  “I don’t even think Axel’s that mad.”

“Right?!  He just seems worried!” Sora flailed his arms in frustration.

Roxas looked over, mildly intrigued, mostly mopey.

“We’ve got to do something,” the brunette crossed his arms and sat back.  “But what?”

Riku grinned and pulled out his phone.  “I have an idea.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well… this is our final chapter. I love you all and I’m so happy you’ve seemed to enjoy it. I thank everyone who took the time to read and review; you’ve all warmed my heart.
> 
> Fun Fact: Fornaxis, Axel’s band, is basically Latin for oven/furnace. Fornax is the goddess of ovens, Axel’s all fiery, their music is hot? Sure. Makes sense.

As the day continued on and night fell, not much more happened.  Roxas stayed near-comatose for the day and was now crocheting his second scarf, eyebrows drawn together and his face vacant.

“ROX!” Sora zoomed down the stairs, brandishing his phone at Roxas.  “The pizza man is trying to tell me I _can’t_ order 10 different toppings.  THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT,” he bellowed.  “Puh- _lease_ deal with this crook for me.”

He jammed the phone in Roxas’s face and then loomed over him.

Roxas glared at his brother but put the phone to his ear.  “Sir, if we’re paying for them, I’m not sure why you can’t put those toppings on.”

A husky, familiar voice came from the receiver.  “Rox, it’s me.  Don’t hang up.”

Roxas _was_ about to hang up.  Ugh, how _dare_ that redheaded lame-o know him so well?  His heart sped and he blinked away sudden tears.  “What do you want?”

“We need to talk,” Axel said firmly, confidently.  As if that fact that Roxas was still on the phone with him gave him the mettle to be steadfast.  “Just come outside.”

“What?” Roxas asked.  His heart wasn’t slowing; he clutched the half-done scarf to his chest.

“We’re going for a drive,” Axel’s voice said.  “Please get in the car.”

“No!” Roxas raised his voice.  He threw the phone at Sora and shouted, “You can’t make me!!”

Sora grabbed both our boy’s arms and held him securely.  “Stop running away.  You can do this.”

Roxas just looked at his brother pitifully, his taking shallow, shaky breaths.  “I’m terrified.”

“I know, but you will regret it if you don’t at least try,” he said.  The two hugged, then Sora squeezed Roxas’s hand.  “Go get him, killer.”

Roxas nodded and stood up straight, trying to position himself appear braver than he was and he looked back at Sora once more.  His brother gave him an encouraging nod and he slipped out the door.

Our boy approached the old clunker running in the driveway, trying to control his breathing so he didn’t hyperventilate.  He reached the car and bit the bullet, getting in without giving himself a chance to duck out.  He looked to Axel, who didn’t look back.  He only held out a hand.  Roxas took it, thankful that if he was going to be dumped, they could at least hold hands one last time.  Axel’s touch comforted him regardless of the tension in the air.  Roxas was nearly too worried about their impending conversation to notice Axel’s glasses and how adorable he looked.

The redhead kissed the back of Roxas’s hand and then put it on the gear shift, placing his hand on top and lacing their fingers together.  As he started driving, the rhythmic shifting of gears was a constant reminder that even after last night, Axel was there for him.  They were still by one another’s sides.

Either due to Roxas’s hangover or just the lull of the car, our boy quickly lost track of time and eventually the two found themselves on an empty country road, with farms and rolling hills as far as they could see on either side.

Axel finally spoke.  “I’d like a chance to explain myself.”

“I need to go first,” Roxas gripped his jeans with his free hand.  “I’m so ashamed of myself.  I was behaving childishly and you didn’t deserve anything like that.”  Roxas met Axel’s eyes briefly before he looked back out the windshield.  “I’ve never been sorrier.”

“I understood, honestly,” Axel shrugged.  “You saw me being friendly with my ex and never got an explanation.  I could see how you’d jump to conclusions.  You were hurt.”

Roxas blushed, touched that someone as thoughtful and kind as Axel wanted to be with him.  “I was, but it was stupid and that doesn’t excuse the horrible things I said to you.”

“I’ll grant you that.  You definitely weren’t nice,” Axel chuckled lightly.  “I forgive you.  Now let me tell you what happened.”

Roxas gave a curt nod and Axel began.  “I told you Aerith moved to the city with my mom, right?  Well, she was back to pick up some extra pieces they left here.  That’s what my mom called to tell me the other day at Kupo.”  Axel gripped the blonde’s hand.  “Aerith said she wanted me to move to the city with them.  Said I could enroll in classes there and that we could… get back together.”

Roxas’s heart sank.  After all, it was what he was afraid of.  “Oh.”

Axel looked over at our boy and gave him a lopsided grin.  “Don’t give me that face.  You really don’t trust me?” he shook his head.  “I told her that I’m very happy where I am and that getting back together never was an option.  And I told her…” The redhead trailed off and his hands gripped the steering wheel anxiously.

“What?” Roxas asked, clinging onto every word, trying to brand them into his brain.

“…That I was in love with someone else.” He paused.  “She said she understood, and that was that.”

Roxas sat shocked, his alcohol-stained brain not processing at all.  “So… who are you in love with?”

“Are you—are you serious right now?” Axel asked.  He calmly pulled over on the side of the deserted road and Minnie came to a stop.

Roxas simply stared at Axel with wide eyes.

“You’re going to make me say it?”  Axel exhaled loudly.  He wound both their hands together.  “It’s you, Rox.  I love you.”

“You… you do?” our boy asked quietly.  “Why?”

“Jesus,” Axel said, a bemused smile on his face.  He put Minnie in gear and pulled onto the road again.  “Even when you’re acting like a fucking crazy person all I can think about is trying to make things better between us.  That’s love.  I’m excited, but also, like, crazy calm when I see you.  I can see our future together, Rox.”

Roxas was sure his face was radiating enough to heat the whole car.

“And you’re hot as hell,” Axel added cheekily.

That, if you were wondering, was Roxas’s breaking point.  He started manically laughing.

“God, you’re so weird,” the redhead murmured, but laughed as well.

Once Roxas had composed himself, he put his hand on Axel’s thigh.  “Are you sure?  About everything being over with Aerith?”

“I am,” he said, looking thoughtful.  “I wouldn’t have told you I loved you if there was any doubt in my mind.  I’m yours, if you want me.”

“I want you,” Roxas breathed.

Axel chuckled humorlessly and moved Roxas’s hand from his thigh back to the gear shift.  “You’re torturous.”

Roxas, surprised, smirked.  The fact that maybe he had the same effect on Axel that Axel did on himself never crossed our boy’s mind.  Maybe he _could_ do this.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you.  Apparently, Tifa told Aerith to come to the Canteen last night,” Axel said.

Roxas grimaced.  “Guess she wanted to stir the pot since I spurned her advances.”

“Yup, you guessed right,” he said.  “I think she also wanted another shot at getting with you.”

Our boy shuddered.  “How’d she even know about the party?”

“I guess Zexion let it slip.  She’d been crashing at the apartment for the last couple days.”  The redhead frowned.  “She also told Aerith that I wanted to get back together with her.  Poor girl felt so bad when she realized what happened.  She wishes us all the best, by the way.”

Roxas was hit with a flashback from the night before.  You know the one.  The time?  With the throwing up?   Our boy burst out into hearty laughter.  “I just remembered.  Tifa talked to me last night, tried to hit on me again.”

Axel’s grip on the wheel tightened.  “If she touched you—”

“No. I, uh, didn’t give her the chance,” our boy giggled again.  “I threw up all over her.”

Axel’s cackling filled the car.  As their laughter began to fade, Axel wiped happy tears from his eyes and they sat in comfortable silence before Roxas had made up his mind.  “Okay, I want you to take me home, please.”

Axel pushed his glasses up his nose, looking disappointed.  “If that’s what you want.”

“Oh, please,” Roxas elbowed him playfully.  “I want you to meet my dad.”

“For real?” Axel asked.  “If you feel like I’m pressuring you at all—”

“No, no.” Roxas reached over and brushed some stray hairs from Axel’s temple and ran his hand through his red tresses.  “I want everyone to know you’re an important part of my life now.  Even if we end up dying tonight.”

Axel smiled and leaned into the touch.  He caught our boy’s hand and kissed it lightly.

The redhead seemed to just remember something.  He frowned and sent a sidelong glance at Roxas.  “Actually, if you don’t mind,” he whipped the car around in a u-turn.  “There’s something I need to do first.”

“What is it?” Roxas asked, growing concerned.

“Something damn manly.”

The two rode in silence, Roxas more and more worried that Axel was going to take him deep into the woods to fight a bear for his affection.  For Roxas’s affection.  Not the bear’s.  Or, well, would it be a better story if mid-fight Axel fell in love with the bear and they eloped living happily ever after until the cold bitter winter when the bear got hungry?  Possibly, but that’s not _this_ story.

Instead of driving into the woods, Axel took them to his apartment.  They idled outside and Axel turned to our boy.  “I will be right back.  Stay here.”

Leaving Minnie on, Axel hurried out of the car and into the apartment.

Roxas watched the door, every second passing unbearably slow.  It must have only been a few minutes, but Roxas couldn’t wait anymore.  He had a bad feeling about it all.  The stubborn set of Axel’s jaw made our boy uneasy.  He made up his mind and tore out of the car.  He opened the front door slowly and was greeted with yelling.

“—you again.  I’ve taken a lot of shit from you, but this is where I draw the line.  First, trying to take advantage of Roxas and then, what, trying to split us up?  That’s the last time you fuck with Roxas or anyone I care about,” Axel shook his head in disbelief.  “You’re so selfish, my god.  Aerith only asked me to get back with her because she thought that’s what _I_ wanted.  Who could have possibly told her that?”

Tifa’s expression turned indignant.  “Wha— I never told her anything!”

“Oh, so you and she both just happened to accidentally crash Roxas’s graduation party?  So that you could have me out of the way and get Roxas alone to harass him,” Axel demanded.

“Calm down, it was never harassment, I was just having fun with him.”  Tifa put a hand on her hip haughtily.  “Doesn’t matter now, anyway.  I stop being interested in a guy when he pukes on me.”

“Even Roxas’s puke is too good for you.  We’re done here,” Axel turned his back on her.  “You’re getting the fuck out of our lives.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, I—”

“I said, _we’re done_ ,” Axel bellowed.  Tifa shrank back.  “Got it?  I won’t tell you again.”

She didn’t answer, but her stunned silence was answer enough.  Axel turned and stomped toward the door and Roxas.  His whole demeanor softened as he caught sight of the blonde peeking through the door.

“Let’s go, love,” he murmured as he reached our boy.  He slipped out the door, an arm around Roxas’s waist protectively.

“I’m sorry,” he said once they were back in the car.  “I didn’t want you to see me like that.”

Roxas couldn’t understand his burning cheeks or the searing excitement that filled every inch of his body.  “No, it’s… okay.”

“I just had to be sure she’d leave us alone,” Axel grit his teeth.

“I think we’ve seen the last of her,” our boy said, hooking his arm underneath Axel’s as they drove.  “And if not, well, we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.”

*             *             *             *             *

They arrived at the Clavella home some time later.  Roxas noted the dark house and thought that maybe Cloud would be waiting up in the living room with all the lights off like a murderer.  He did that sometimes.

When they got inside, they found that Cloud was not waiting up in the living room to kill them, and the house was still.

“I guess he’s asleep,” Roxas whispered.

“I’m not surprised, it’s like midnight,” Axel whispered back.  “It’s my fault, I lost track of time.”

Roxas jutted his lower lip out.  “It’s okay.”

Axel headed back toward the door.  “I’ll just come back tom—”

Roxas grabbed Axel’s hand and tugged him back.  “Please don’t go.”

Axel opened his mouth, then closed it.  “Roxas…” he said, half warning, half pleading.  “I don’t want to scare you off again.  It’s best if I just go.”

“Maybe it is what’s best,” our boy said, puffing out his chest.  “But I don’t care.  I won’t say goodbye to you yet.”

Axel searched his love’s eyes in the pale glow of the moonlight streaming in through the windows.  “Don’t do this to me.”

Roxas’s eyes flashed, daring Axel to pull away, daring him to leave.  They stood like that for a minute, Axel measuring Roxas, whose eyes burned with a fire, a certainty, he’d never before had.  Axel seemed to relent, letting our boy lead him up the stairs and into his bedroom.  The door closed behind them.

“This is a terrible idea,” Axel whispered as he took in the room.  He idled near the bed, leaning on one of the bedposts.

Roxas shook his head and gently pushed Axel onto the mattress.

“What are you doing?” the redhead asked, perplexed.

“I’m being brave,” he answered, crawling on top of Axel.  He caught the redhead’s lips and placed a hand at the back of his neck to pull him closer, deepening the kiss.  Hands were in hair, bodies pressed close.  Axel braced the boy against him and turned them onto their sides, face to face.  He checked Roxas’s expression before enveloping the blonde in his arms and pressing their lips together again.

It was a lovely, fluttering feeling, to be kissing Axel.  New but familiar at the same time, soothing but exhilarating.  He vaguely pondered that he never thought he would be in this position, sneaking someone into his room, into his bed.  He realized he was no longer scared of this, of Axel.  It again occurred to him that maybe he was ready for this relationship.  They kissed again and again, trying to memorize the feel of one another.

Axel pecked Roxas’s nose, then his forehead.  “How are you?”  He whispered.  “Feeling like running away?”

“No,” Roxas whispered back.  “There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

The redhead turned to lay on his back and Roxas rested his head on Axel’s chest, sighing.  He concentrated on the rhythmic rise and fall of the man’s breath.  He didn’t know how long they lay there, but it was long enough that he felt he needed to check if the redhead was still awake.

“Axel?” he squeaked.

“Hm?”

“Earlier, seeing you get all protective was- well, I liked it.  I think it was…” Roxas tested the word on his tongue. “Sexy.”

Axel chuckled, “Oh really?  You liked that, huh?”

“And now, I’ll never admit to liking anything ever again,” he vowed.

Axel smiled and leaned down to kiss the top of Roxas’s head.  “It’s burned into my brain.  I’ll never forget it.”

“I want to tell you I love you,” our boy said suddenly.  He blinked, not quite realizing what he’d said and quickly wondering if he had lost control over the connection from his brain to his mouth.

Axel squeezed him close.  “Don’t say it before you’re ready and you really mean it.  I don’t care how long it takes.”

Roxas mulled over possible answers to this statement.  Some included: Why are you so patient?  What is wrong with you?  Were you dropped on your head as a child?  What did I even do to deserve you?  How long does it take to die from strangulation?  Whoops, that last one slipped in at the end.  Our boy’s mind was wandering.  He settled for hugging Axel tighter and thanking him.  “Would you at least agree to be my boyfriend?  Officially, I mean.”

“I _suppose_ I could agree to that,” Axel laughed softly.  He lifted the blonde’s chin up and their eyes locked.  “I’m yours.  Officially.”

The two kissed slowly and sweetly, a lazy, lethargic kiss.  As sleep began to take our boy, he mumbled, "Well, boyfriend, you gotta be gone by morning, in case my dad comes in to wake me up.”

“Got it,” Axel sighed sleepily.

*          *          *          *      *

The next morning, Roxas woke up knowing three unfortunate truths.  Firstly, he was now in too deep with Axel to not be a suspect in his murder, were it to occur.  Secondly, the two of them had fallen asleep together in Roxas’s bed.  Thirdly, Mr. Clavella had found them as such.  How did Roxas know this?  Well, it was hard to sleep through a manly, wordless yell and a door slamming shut.  Not too hard for Axel, apparently, because he was still sound asleep.  He may have even drowsily smacked his lips together.

Roxas was waiting for the teenage shame and dread of his father’s disapproval to creep into the pit of his stomach, but when he chanced a peak at the sleeping face next to him, all he felt was warmth.  Shifting slightly, Roxas found that Axel completely engulfed him.  The two were a mass of tangled limbs under the blankets that, at the very least, looked suggestive.  Inexplicably, Axel had shed his shirt and pants in the night, most likely desperate for freedom from the constricting fabrics.  Roxas didn’t fight the blush or the languorous, helpless smile that slowly spread over his face.

Axel abruptly took a deep breath, tightened his hold around Roxas, and hummed sleepily.  “You up already, love?”

“Yeah,” our boy whispered back, still smiling.  He turned on his side so they were facing each other.  Axel pulled him into his arms again, releasing the blonde only slightly so he could kiss his forehead.  “Dis nice,” he said.

“Very articulate of you,” Roxas commented.  Axel laughed and Roxas felt it in his own chest.  He nuzzled into Axel’s neck.  “My dad has seen.”

“That’s good,” Axel’s eyes were still closed as he ran fingers through Roxas’s hair.  “I’d hate to hear that he suddenly went blind.”

Roxas giggled.  “I’m not so sure he didn’t.”

Axel sighed.  “You’re going to go talk to him.”

Roxas rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.  “If I don’t, I’m afraid he’ll do something disastrous.  I’ll come get you when it’s safe.”

Axel drew him in for one more kiss before Roxas made his way, hurrying down the stairs.  He padded into the kitchen, taking each step with caution.  The bear traps could have already been laid out.  He found his father at the stove.

“So,” Roxas wrung out his hands as he stood in front of his father.  “Dad.”

Cloud’s eyebrows twitched, but the man kept his eyes fixed on the stove.  “Yes.”

“Remember how you always told me not to date someone whose waist is smaller than mine?” Roxas asked with a wince.

His father’s demeanor darkened.  “Yes.”

“Well, not only have I found someone whose waist is smaller than mine, but he’s also three years older than me, and in a band,” our boy grinned sheepishly up at his father.

Cloud took the newspaper from the table and held it to the stove, letting it catch fire on the gas burner.

“Um… whatcha doing there?” Roxas asked, tone light, hiding the hysteria he was feeling nicely.

“I told myself the day you had a suitor I would burn the house down with all of us in it,” Cloud said gravely.  “I thank you for giving me eighteen burn-free years.”

“Okay, enough of that.” Roxas grabbed the newspaper out of his hand and threw it in the sink, dousing the flame in water.  He spun around and flicked off the stove, then directed his father to his usual seat at the table.

“You’re welcome, and you’re right; I have been a good son to you.  Do me this favor and get to know him, and, if you’re still upset, you can burn the house down.”

Cloud squinted at his son and considered this for a few long moments.  “…Your terms are acceptable.”

Roxas was taking quite a gamble with their lives.  He wasn’t at all sure Ol’ Man Rainy would like Axel in the slightest.  He ran back up the stairs and his heart fluttered knowing what was on the other side of his bedroom door.  He opened it and entered, seeing Axel sitting on his bed and pulling on his jeans.  He stood and yanked them the rest of the way up and glanced up at Roxas.  He grinned at our boy and closed the space between them in two long strides.  He caught the blonde’s face in his hands and kissed him fiercely.  When he pulled away he placed a peck on Roxas’s nose and forehead.

“I love that I get to do that,” Axel whispered.

“I’m glad that I can give you that comfort in your final hours,” Roxas said.

Axel laughed.  “It’s going to be fine.”  He held his arms out and Roxas obliged, hugging him tightly.

Roxas ran his hands over the smooth skin on Axel’s back and sighed.  “Put on a shirt, we have to go wow DJ Drizzle.”

The redhead stuck up his nose assuredly.  “You’ll see.  He will love me.”

Roxas started sweating nervously and put his hands on his hips, puffing out his cheeks- really looking like a guy who just ran a marathon.  The whole situation was already so exhausting for our boy.

Axel slipped his shirt on and clapped Roxas on the back.  “Alright!  Let’s go.”

As Roxas struggled to catch his breath, the two made their way downstairs and into the kitchen. Cloud stood when they came in and Roxas rushed to the stove, just in case he wanted to make a break for the burner.

“Axel, this is Cloud, my father,” Roxas withered as he watched Cloud’s cold expression.

Axel put on his most winning smile and presented his hand to Cloud.  “Nice to meet you, sir!  I’m Axel.”  He beamed jovially at Rainy Guy, who seemed to darken, like his namesake.

Cloud shuddered but eventually calmed himself.  He took Axel’s hand and gave it a solid shake.  “Okay.”

He turned slowly to Roxas and murmured, “Why is he calling me sir?  Did he not just hear my name?”

Roxas pinched the bridge of his nose and said through gritted teeth, “Dad, he’s being polite, maybe you could try that too.”

“Can’t teach an old dog,” Cloud shrugged and sat at the table.  He eyed the stove furtively, so Roxas decided to be proactive about not burning alive.

“Okay!  Who wants breakfast?” our boy nearly yelled, rummaging through the cabinets and retrieving a couple frying pans.

“Oh!  Mememememe!” Sora bounded into the room like the world’s most graceless antelope.  Riku trailed behind, giving Cloud a small wave as he entered.

Cloud’s face brightened, although he didn’t smile, nor give an indication he was happy in any way.

“What’ll it be, you scrawny wenches?” Roxas asked, swinging around spatula.

“Eggs and bacon!  Eggs and bacon!” Sora chanted the words, starting a full blown kitchen revolution.

Axel stood and stilled the revolt, grabbing a frying pan out of Roxas’s mitts.  “Can’t have eggs and bacon without pancakes, and luckily for all of you,” he winked at Cloud and the room held its breath, “I am the pancake principal.”

Cloud stared at Axel incredulously, then picked up a pen and began his crossword.  Everyone else sighed in relief.

The two little lovebirds whipped up the best breakfast ever made.  The pancakes?  Fluffy.  The eggs?  Even fluffier.  The bacon?  Cooked to perfection, not at all fluffy.  Even Cloud, a famously reproving breakfast critic, was begrudgingly impressed.

“So Axel,” Cloud began, putting down his fork as to not have any temptation to threaten the man with it as a weapon.  “How do you feel about mudkips?”

“For ‘em,” Axel said through a mouthful of pancake.

Cloud seemed to deem this as an appropriate answer and nodded.  “And your legs, how strong are they?  Since your waist is too small, you’ll have to protect Roxas some other way.”

“I believe they’re capable,” Axel said slowly, truly considering his answer.

“If you say so,” Cloud sighed.  “I suppose you’ll do for now.”

Axel did a subtle fist pump under the table and Roxas narrowed his eyes as his father.  “Yes, he will do.”

“So, now that _that_ weirdness is done, what should we do today?” Sora asked, stuffing an entire egg into his mouth.  “We should do something fun!”

“What about the beach?” Roxas suggested.

“Oh yeah!  We’ve been wanting to go to the beach!  Let’s do it.  Everyone in?  Great,” Sora jabbered.  He turned to Riku, eyes narrowed.  “I’m gonna bury you so deep in the sand.”

“Okay,” Riku said, nearly meaning it.

“I’m down for the beach,” Axel shrugged.  “I’ll drive.”

Since breakfast was an utter success, they decided to leave quickly before Cloud changed his mind.  And so, the four headed out for a day in the sun and surf.  They piled into Minnie, Sora bouncing and ballyhooing around as usual.

Roxas turned to Axel and smiled, not believing that they were all still alive and actually going to have, like, a future, maybe.

Axel grinned back and turned the key in the ignition and… nothing.  He tried again, sighing, and still, nothing.  He looked at Roxas, our boy… nay, _his_ boy, and flashed a crooked grin.  “Guess we’re taking the bus.”


	9. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoping this lil epilogue puts a nice little bow on the whole thing. Thank you all for everything. It has been so nice getting to share this story with you. You've all been so supportive and sweet; I love you <3

Roxas dropped the last box onto the floor in his new dorm room and wiped his brow.  He looked around, still surprised he landed a single as a freshman.  He turned to the door, and saw Axel coming in carrying a floor lamp.

“Where do you want this?” he asked.

“Eh, somewhere in the middle there,” Roxas answered, motioning vaguely to the entire room.

Axel shrugged and put it down.  “All moved in?”

“Sure am,” our boy answered.  Axel put an arm around Roxas’s shoulders and squeezed gently. 

“I still can’t believe you chose to go to my college just for me,” Axel pretended to swoon, forcing Roxas to struggle to support his weight.  “You must love me so much.”

“You know damn well that it has the perfect program for me and if I went too far away Sora would just flunk out of school,” Roxas said.  He propped Axel back up and stole a quick kiss.  “It just so happens that I do love you, though.”

Cloud was finishing up making Roxas’s bed and made a gagging sound at them.

“Oh, get over it, Operator Overcast,” Roxas teased. 

“If I were a wiser man, I would have name you both weather-related names so you would have no ammunition to use against me,” Cloud shook his head solemnly.  “My life is full of regret.”

“Enough out of you, you a sad sack,” Sora said, waltzing in with Riku, who was carrying a few pizza boxes. 

“It’s as if you know me,” Cloud said flatly.  He turned to Roxas and put a hand on his shoulder.  “Please come home regularly.  I can’t promise your brother will be in one piece if you don’t.”

“Right,” Roxas nodded and smiled at his father.  “I’ll come home.”

Cloud’s lips curved up into a small smile, but then his lower lip split from the extreme tension and his mouth dropped again into his usual flatness.  “Bye, all.  Riku,” he shook Riku’s hand.  “Always a pleasure.  Please move into the house as soon as possible.”

Riku nodded casually.  “Got it.”

Cloud grabbed a piece of pizza before walking out the door, though he briefly backtracked and poked his head back in.  “Oh, and Axel.  I suppose I don’t hate you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Clavella,” Axel said, grinning like a bandit.

Cloud nodded and left, leaving a very impressed Roxas. 

“Wow, that was more than I ever could have hoped,” Roxas said, smiling up at Axel.

“Psh,” Axel laughed.  “I told you dads love me.”

“Ugh,” Sora bemoaned.  “I can’t wait to live with you again next year.  I’m going to miss you so much,”  Sora said as he rolled around on Roxas’s freshly made bed, a pizza slice flopping around in his hand.  “With only the Earl of Fogtown, my life is gonna get so boring.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll come home all the time,” Roxas said.  “What with my new ride and all.”

“It was really nice of Cid to sell you that car he’d been working on,” Sora said, cramming the pizza slice in his mouth and arming himself with two more.

“Yes, and you’ll never take this from me,” Roxas said, a hint of mania in his eyes.

Sora nodded but said, “I could if I wanted to.”

Roxas glared at him.  “Is that any way to talk to someone who put in a good word for you at your new job?”

Sora’s face lit up.  “I just can’t believe you talked Rainy Day Man into letting me work at the Canteen!  I’m so excited.”

Roxas flapped a hand, but looked proud of himself.  “I just told him some nonsense about you not being challenged enough.”

“Imagine next year though!” Sora sat up, a dreamy gleam in his eyes.  “Two brothers sharing one job, one college, one dorm room… one dream.”

“’Scuse me, Sora, but it’s pretty presumptuous of you to assume that Roxas won’t be living with me next year,” Axel waggled his eyebrows. 

“You’ll all be very surprised when Demyx and I move into a love nest together,” Roxas smirked.

Axel and Sora both looked at him, disgust and betrayal flowing from their eyeballs in a river of goop. 

“Don’t even say that,” Axel warned.  “Dem would love that.”

“Hey, if we don’t get a move on, we’re going to miss the movie,” Riku said, stuffing some pizza into his face.

“If we miss this movie, I will strangle you all with your own intestines,” Roxas grabbed the keys on the table and a slice of pizza for himself.

“To think that soon we’ll be watching The Shark That Ate the World’s Son: Sharks on Mars!” Axel exclaimed. 

“Ooh!  I think Axel should drive.  Then we get to see him in his glasses,” Sora said expectantly.

“What is it with you brothers and my glasses?!” the redhead demanded, laughing. 

“Please, he’s not driving!”  Roxas snorted and twirled the keys of his just-fixed-up 1969 Triumph TR6 around his finger.  “It’s not even up for debate.  We’re taking my Mickey.”


End file.
